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MEMOIR 


/ 


OF 

/ 

JOSEPH  CURTIS, 

A  MODEL  MAN. 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OP  , 

“MEANS  AND  ENDS,”  “the  LINWOODS,”  “hope  LESLIE,” 

“live  and  let  live,”  etc.,  etc. 


“  I  pray  thee  -write  me,  then, 

As  one,  at  least,  who  loves  his  fellow-men. 

The  angel  wrote  and  vanished.  The  next  night 
He  came  again  with  great  awakening  light, 

And  showed  those  names  which  love  of  God  had  blessed, 
And  lo!  Ben  Adam's  name  led  all  the  rest  /” 


\ 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN  SQUARE. 

1  8  58. 


.tfv 
•  *8 

♦  tri  r  \  \  m 

BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

HILL, 

m  I  1965 


x 


\ 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  fifty-eight,  by 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

in  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of 

New  York. 


TO  THE 


v 


FRIENDS  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS, 

AND 


) 


TO  THE  YOUNG  PEOPLE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF 

NEW  YORK, 

2C1)ts  i&emott 

OF  THEIR  DEVOTED  FRIEND  AND  HELPER 
IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED, 

BY  HIS  FRIEND, 

C.  M.  SEDGWICK. 


New  York,  25th  June,  1S5S. 


_ 

*  ,:r 

1 

- 


■ 

' 

I"  I  ;.M' 


s' 


.  ‘ 


* 


% 


CONTENTS. 

/ 

Chapter  Page 

I.  BOYHOOD .  7 

n.  CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE .  25 

HI.  HOME  LIFE .  36 

IV.  THE  MANUMISSION  SOCIETY .  54 

V.  THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE .  61 

VI.  SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES .  107 

VII.  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK .  136 

VIII.  CLOSE  OF  LIFE .  176 


MEMOIR 


OF 

JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BOYHOOD. 

“The  child  is  father  to  the  man.” 

It  was  the  fashion  of  the  elder  times  to  go 
to  oracles  to  learn  what  the  course  of  a  man’s 

«•  I  ■  i 

life  was  to  be.  To  our  young  friends  we  say 
there  are  surer  oracles  than  that  of  Delphos  in 
your  own  every-day  lives.  Observe  your  play¬ 
mates.  Mark  those  who  treat  their  parents  and 
teachers  with  respect  and  obedience,  and  those 
who  do  not ;  those  who  use  no  profane  or  inde¬ 
cent  language ;  who  speak  the  truth ;  who  keep 
their  promises  ;  who  are  kind  and  free-hearted; 


8  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

who  do  not  seek  any  advantage  that  will  cause 
suffering  or  loss  to  others;  and  then  look  at 
the  other  sort  among  you,  and  you  can  tell, 
better  than  any  oracle,  what  kind  of  men  and 
women  they  will  prove.  Sometimes,  from  a 
single  action,  much  of  the  character  can  be 
learned.  Hugh  Miller,  in  his  life  of  himself, 
gives  the  following  anecdote  of  the  childhood 
of  his  father :  “  Rather  more  than  eighty  years 
ago,”  he  says,  u  a  stout  little  boy  was  sent  from 
a  farm-house,  in  the  parish  of  Cromarty,  to 
drown  a  litter  of  puppies  in  the  adjacent  pond. 

» 

The  commission  seemed  to  be  not  in  the  least 
congenial.  He  sat  down  beside  the  pond,  and 
began  to  cry  over  his  charge,  and  finally,  after 
wasting  some  time  in  a  paroxysm  of  indecision 
and  sorrow,  instead  of  committing  the  puppies 
to  the  water,  he  tucked  them  up  in  his  kilt,  and 
set  out  on  a  blind  pathway,  which  went  wind¬ 
ing  through  the  stunted  heath  of  the  dreary 
Moulbay  Common,  in  a  direction  opposite  to 
that  of  the  farm-house.  After  some  doubtful 
wandering  on  the  waste,  he  succeeded  in  reach- 


BOYHOOD. 


9 


in g,  before  nightfall,  the  neighboring  sea-port 
town,  and  presented  himself,  laden  with  his 
charge,  at  his  mother’s  door.  The  poor  wom¬ 
an,  a  sailor’s  widow,  in  very  hnmble  circum¬ 
stances,  raised  her  hands  in  astonishment : 
4  Ah !  my  unlucky  boy,’  she  exclaimed, 4  what’s 
this  ?  What  brings  you  here  ?’ 

44  £  The  little  doggies,  mother,’  said  the  boy; 
4 1  could  na  drown  the  doggies,  and  I  took  them 
to  you.’  ”  This  tender-hearted  little  boy,  wrhen 
he  grew  up,  and  became  the  master  of  a  sailing 
vessel  as  he  did,  was  sure  to  prove  the  kind 
and  loved  master  that  he  was. 

You  have  all  heard  of  Benedict  Arnold ;  you 
know  he  was  the  only  man  that  proved  a  traitor 
to  his  country  in  the  war  of  the  Bevolution. 
The  boy  was  as  false  as  the  man.  44  One  of  his 
earliest  amusements,”  says  his  biographer,  44  was 
the  robbing  of  birds’-nests  in  sight  of  the  old 
ones,  that  he  might  be  diverted  by  their  cries.” 
He  was  apprenticed  to  some  worthy  druggists. 
44  Near  their  shop  was  a  schoolhouse,  and  he 
would  scatter  in  the  paths  broken  pieces  of 


10  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

glass  taken  from  the  crates,  by  which  the  chil¬ 
dren  would  cut  their  feet  in  coming  from  the 
school.  The  cracked  and  imperfect  vials 
which  came  in  the  crates  were  perquisites  of 
the  apprentices.  Hopkins,  a  fellow-apprentice, 
and  an  amiable  youth,  was  in  the  habit  of  plac¬ 
ing  his  share  on  the  outside  of  the  shop,  near 
the  door,  and  permitting  the  small  boys  to  take 
them  away,  who  were  pleased  with  this  token 
of  his  good-will.  Arnold  followed  the  same 
practice ;  but  when  he  had  decoyed  the  boys, 
and  they  were  busy  picking  up  the  broken 
vials,  he  would  rush  out  of  the  shop  with  a 
horsewhip  in  his  hand,  call  them  thieves,  and 
beat  them  without  mercy.”  “Even  a  child 
is  known  by  his  doings.” 

“  Arnold  was  likewise  fond  of  rash  feats  of 
daring,  always  foremost  in  danger,  and  as  fear¬ 
less  as  he  was  wickedly  mischievous.  Some¬ 
times  he  took  corn  to  a  grist-mill  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  ;  and,  while  waiting  for  the  meal,  he 
would  amuse  himself  and  astonish  his  playmate*? 
by  clinging  to  the  arms  of  a  large  water-wheel, 


BOYHOOD. 


11 


and  passing  with  it  beneath  and  above  the  wa¬ 
ter.”  In  this  he  manifested,  while  yet  a  boy, 
the  intrepidity  that,  when  he  became  a  man  and 
a  soldier,  won  for  him  the  admiration  of  his 
countrymen  and  the  confidence  of  General 
Washington.  But  the  evil  qualities  that  were 
betrayed  in  robbing  birds’-nests  and  strewing 
glass  under  the  poor  little  boys’  feet  eclipsed 
all  his  brave  deeds. 

Some  memories  of  your  friend  Joseph  Curtis, 
which  have  been  preserved  in  his  family,  will 
show  you  how  like  the  boy  was  to  the  man, 
ever  ready  to  do  kindness  and  to  explore  the 
paths  of  knowledge.  “Joseph,”  says  one  of 
his  relatives,  now  in  the  decline  of  life,  “was 
never  known  to  quarrel,  or  strike  a  brother  or 
sister.  At  school  he  took  the  part  of  the  weak¬ 
est.  If  he  saw  one  boy  domineering  over  an¬ 
other,  he  stood  by  the  oppressed.  The  little 
boys  all  looked  to  Joseph  as  their  champion.” 
In  those  days  it  was  the  custom,  as  it  still  is  in 
some  rural  districts,  for  the  children  to  carry 
their  dinners  to  school,  and  to  eat  it  at  noon 


12  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

during  tire  hour’s  interval.  If  there  were  any 
poor  little  fellow  for  whom  no  portion  was  pro¬ 
vided,  Joseph  shared  with  him  ‘  the  fat  and  the 
sweet’  —  the  bread  and  butter,  cold  sausage, 
nut-cakes,  apples,  and  nuts,  that  formed  the 
relishing  schoolboys’  lunch  of  those  (anti-dys¬ 
pepsia)  days.  If,  by  dividing,  he  could  not  sat¬ 
isfy  ‘the  poor  boys,’  he  gave  them  all,  and  de¬ 
ferred  his  appetite  to  his  supper,  when  he  was 
sure  to  be  fed,  and  they  were  not. 

On  one  cold  winter  day — and  cold  winter 
days  are  bitter  in  New  England — Joseph  came 
home  without  his  mittens.  His  fingers  were 
stiffened,  and  he  was  rebuked  for  losing  his 
mittens.  He  said  nothing  in  self-defense  till 
farther  reproof  made  him  confess  that  he  had 
given  them  to  one  of  the  little  poor  boys. 

A  proof  of  the  tenderness  of  his  heart  and  of 
his  consideration  (a  rare  virtue  with  young  peo¬ 
ple)  was  long  gratefully  remembered  and  re¬ 
counted  by  a  poor  woman  of  Danbury,  some 
ten  years  Joseph’s  senior.  She  was  afflicted 
with  paroxysms  of  insanity,  and  at  those  times 


BOYHOOD. 


/ 


13 


she  wandered  about  the  village  with  an  im¬ 
pression  that  she  was  pursued  and  persecuted. 
At  other  times  “  Uncle  Reuben’s”  was  her  house 
of  refuge,  from  a  feeling  (as  she  said  when  she 
recovered  her  reason)  that  if  she  could  find  Jo¬ 
seph,  “he  would  protect  and  comfort  her,”  and 
so  he  did.  “ He  would,”  she  said,  “say  to  me, 
1  How,  aunt,  I  know  you  want  something,’  and 
he  would  leave  his  play,  and  give  me  some  re¬ 
freshment,  and  coax  me  home;  and  when  the 
boys  beset  me,  he  would  make  them  fly.” 

There  was  a  noted  old  drinking  loafer  in 
Danbury,  who  went  from  house  to  house  ask¬ 
ing  for  a  mug  of  cider,  a  rustic  hospitality 
rarely  refused  in  those  days  of  abounding  cider- 
presses.  But  Joseph  Curtis,  even  in  his  boy¬ 
hood,  was  too  thoughtful  in  his  kindness  to 
minister  to  destructive  appetites ;  and  one  day, 
when  this  fellow  called  at  Uncle  Reuben’s,  Jo¬ 
seph  filled  the  mug  from  the  brine  in  the  beef- 
barrel.  The  old  man  eagerly  put  it  to  his  lips 
and  swallowed  a  heavy  draught,  and  then, 
without  speaking,  set  the  mug  quietly  down 


14  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

and  left  the  house,  and  did  not  return  to  it  for 
many  months. 

J oseph  Curtis  very  early  manifested  that  au¬ 
thority  over  inferior  spirits  in  man  or  beast 
that  seems  to  be  a  divine  inspiration.  His 
Danbury  cotemporaries  remember  that  when 
he  was  but  eight  years  old  he  astonished  them 
with  his  courage  in  mounting  young  horses  and 
his  prowess  in  riding  them.  While  he  was 
yet  a  boy,  he  was  renowned  for  his  skill  in 
breaking  horses.  “He  had,”  they  said,  “the 
knack  of  it” — a  knack  partly  explained  by  his 

“  seldom  using  the  whip,  and  never  abusively.” 

>  ? 

In  addition  to  his  gentleness,  he  had  patience 
and  perseverance  —  qualities  that  horses  com¬ 
prehend  almost  as  well  as  men.  Nearly  sixty 
years  of  city  life  did  not  inure  him  to  the  abuse 
of  horses.  He  often  interfered  to  save  them 
from  what  he  termed  “  infuriated  ignorance.” 

Some  boys  will  play  at  marbles  through  their 
childhood  without  thinking  how  they  are  made 
or  what  they  consist  of.  When  Joseph  was 
about  four  years  old,  a  marble  was  given  to 


BOYHOOD* 


15 


him.  It  was  the  first  he  had  ever  seen.  He 
admired  its  smoothness  and  roundness,  but  how 
came  it  so  ?  He  was  told  it  was  made  of  sand. 
He  was  not  satisfied.  The  marble  was  hard, 
he  thought,  and  how  could  it  be  made  of  sand  ? 
He  went  to  bed  pondering  on  the  unexplained 
mystery.  He  dreamed  it  was  a  star  dropped 
from  the  sky,  and  he  awoke  still  wondering 
what  it  might  prove.  As  soon  as  he  was  dress¬ 
ed,  he  made  a  rush  to  the  wood-pile,  and  with 
a  hatchet  broke  it  open,  and,  poor  little  fel¬ 
low,  was  as  disappointed  as  the  boy  who  broke 
open  his  drum  to  find  the  sound.  He  was  fond 
of  telling  this  story,  for  he  traced  to  this  point 
of  his  life  his  first  ideas  of  mechanics.  Our 
young  friends  will  permit  us  to  remark  to  them 
that  this  observation  which  Joseph  Curtis  show¬ 
ed  in  relation  to  the  marble  makes  a  vast  deal 
of  the  difference  in  the  intelligence  of  men. 
One  goes  blind  and  blundering  through  life, 
knocking  his  head  against  this  object  and  stum¬ 
bling  against  that,  and  dies  as  ignorant  of  their 
nature  and  uses  as  do  the  lower  animals.  Such 


16  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

men  as  the  famous  Hugh  Miller  and  Joseph 
Curtis  find  every  where  schools  and  teachers. 
They  learn  a  lesson  from  a  marble,  and  the  art 
of  charity  in  a  village  school ;  and  they  go  on 
learning  to  the  last,  and  leave  the  world  pre¬ 
pared  to  commune  with  higher  intelligences — 
to  join  a  higher  class. 


We  have  now  specified  the  facts  that  contrast 
Joseph  Curtis’s  childhood  with  Benedict  Ar¬ 
nold’s,  and  proceed  to  a  more  regular  course 
of  narrative.  J oseph  Curtis  was  born  in  New¬ 
town,  Connecticut,  September  19th,  1782 — a  day 
to  be  set  down  in  the  heart’s  calendar,  and  kept 
as  a  fete-day  by  all  who,  like  the  good  vicar, 
love  happy  human  faces,  and  love  more  those 
who  make  them  so.  Joseph  was  the  fourth  of 
seventeen  children  born  to  his  father  Reuben, 
fourteen  of  whom  survived  to  maturity.  Doubt¬ 
less  there  were  differences  and  childish  dissen¬ 
sions  among  these  seventeen  children,  for  they 
were  young  mortals,  and  not  angels ;  but  one 


BOYHOOD. 


17 


of  the  sisters,  still  surviving,  says,  u  in  our  hum¬ 
ble  country  home  we  lived  lovingly  and  qui¬ 
etly.” 

Eeuben  was  an  honest,  industrious,  sagacious 
man,  who  looked  sharply  before  and  around 
him,  as  need  was  with  seventeen  children  to 
provide  for.  He  was  commonly  called  “Uncle 

c 

Eeuben.”  “  Uncle,”  gratuitously  prefixed,  des¬ 
ignates,  in  a  rural  neighborhood,  a  kind-heart¬ 
ed  man,  a  man  ready  to  speak  a  word  of  cheer, 
or  give  a  lift  to  one  in  need.  Hot  all  his  sev¬ 
enteen  children  could  use  up  his  great  store  of 
affection. 

Uncle  Eeuben  seems  not  to  have  been  satis¬ 
fied  within  the  prescribed  and  narrow  bounds 
of  the  prevailing  sect  in  Connecticut,  so  he  step¬ 
ped  over  into  the  fields  of  a  people  called  San- 
dimanians.  We  believe  their  religious  creed 
did  not  materially  differ  from  their  neighbors’, 
but  they  in  practice  held  to  one  article,  “  thrift 
— thrift,”  from  which  our  Sandimanian  friends 
varied  widely.  Uncle  Eeuben’s  people  held  it 
wrong  to  accumulate  property.  His  seventeen 


18  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

children  must  have  made  it  very  easy  to  him 
to  maintain  this  article,  and  perhaps  the  sin¬ 
cere  adoption  of  it  in  his  youth  may  in  part  ex¬ 
plain  the  singular  zeal  with  which  Joseph  im¬ 
parted  to  others  all  that  he  had  to  spare  from 
his  necessity  throughout  his  whole  life.  An¬ 
other  article  of  the  Sandimanian  Creed  was  an 
implicit  submission  to  the  powers  that  be :  so, 
though  u  Uncle  Reuben’s”  heart  may  have  beat¬ 
en  for  his  country  as  truly  as  the  best  of  his 
patriotic  neighbors,  he  remained  quietly  at 
home  when,  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  they 
took  up  arms  against  King  George.  Honest 
men  differ.  Uncle  Reuben’s  inactivity  in  this 
great  cause  proceeded  from  no  pretext — from 
no  want  of  pluck ,  for  his  memory  is  loved  and 
respected  as  none  but  a  man’s,  good  and  true,  is. 
The  best  pluck  is  to  adhere  to  one’s  principles 
through  good  and  evil  report.  u  Be  sure  you’re 
right,  then  go  ahead.” 

Men’s  characters  are,  for  the  most  part,  mould¬ 
ed  by  the  society  in  which  their  childhood  and 
youth  is  passed.  In  Connecticut,  in  Joseph 


BOYHOOD. 


19 


Curtis’s  early  days,  there  were  few  rich,  and 
fewer  poor;  theirs  was  a  nearly  equal  condi¬ 
tion  of  reciprocal  intercourse  and  mutual  con¬ 
sideration —  “a  pure  republic,”  as  their  own 
best  poet  says,  and  most  happily  and  truly  he 
describes  them.  They 

“Would  shake  hands  with  a  king  upon  his  throne, 

And  think  it  kindness  to  his  majesty : 

A  stubborn  race,  fearing  and  flattering  none.” 

And  then,  relenting  from  his  delicate  satire,  he 
portrays  their  more  attractive  features  affec¬ 
tionately,  and  as  truly  too : 

“View  them  near, 

At  home,  where  all  their  worth  and  pride  is  placed, 

And  there  their  hospitable  fires  burn  bright, 

And  there  the  lowliest  farm-house  hearth  is  graced 
With  manly  hearts,  in  piety  sincere. 

Faithful  in  love,  in  honor  stern  and  chaste, 

In  friendship  warm  and  true,  in  danger  brave, 

Beloved  in  life,  and  sainted  in  the  grave.”* 

It  was  among  these  people  that  Joseph  Cur¬ 
tis  grew  up,  profiting  by  all  the  advantages  of 
this  fortunate  social  condition. 


*  Halleck. 


20  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


That  capital  autobiography  to  which  we  have 
already  referred  is  written  by  Hugh  Miller, 
and  entitled  “My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters.” 
His  “  schools”  were  the  great  universal  schools 
of  nature,  open  to  all ;  his  “  schoolmasters” 
the  good  and  intelligent  men  and  women  he 
met  with  in  the  daily  walks  of  life.  He  began 
a  poor  man.  He  had  little  of  what  is  techni¬ 
cally  termed  education.  He  was  by  trade  a 
stone-mason,  and  worked  diligently;  and  yet, 
by  the  habits  of  quick  and  acute  observation 
and  inquiry,  by  always  keeping  his  eyes  and  ears 
open ,  by  beginning  with  asking,  whenever  his 
foot  turned  up  a  stone,  as  Joseph  Curtis  did  of 
the  marble,  “  what  is  it  made  of?”  he  became 
one  of  the  greatest  geologists  of  Europe.  Jo¬ 
seph  Curtis  studied  in  the  same  school  that 
formed  this  great  scholar.  Observation  and  ex¬ 
perience  were  his  teachers.  The  “common 
schools”  of  his  day  were  but  indifferent,  and  Mr. 
Curtis  regretted  all  his  life  the  want  of  that  in¬ 
struction  which  every  pupil  in  our  public 
schools  now  has.  And,  one  of  the  seventeen, 


BOYHOOD. 


21 


lie  could  not  long  have  the  advantage  of  school¬ 
ing,  poor  as  it  was.  This  multitudinous  fam¬ 
ily  must  each  scramble  for  himself  and  all,  and 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  Joseph  entered  a  print¬ 
ing-office.  This  place  was  offered  to  him  by 
the  editor  of  the  village  paper,  who  had  been 
struck  by  his  intelligence,  and  impressed  by  his 
character. 

A  printing-office  is  a  “school”  to  a  boy 
with  open  eyes  and  ears.  Our  great  Franklin 
(Joseph  Curtis  may  have  been  incited  by  his 
example)  began  his  career  by  working  as  a 
printer’s  boy,  and  ended  it  by  “  sitting  down 
with  princes  in  kings’  houses,”  and  by  being 
more  honored  than  the  best  of  them.  If  any 
of  our  young  readers  do  not  know  why,  we 
advise  them  to  read  the  life  of  Franklin,  which 
perhaps  will  entertain  them  as  much  and  in¬ 
struct  them  more  than  the  life  of  their  favorite 
hero,  Bobinson  Crusoe. 

Steady  confinement  to  the  printer’s  office 
damaged  Joseph’s  health.  He  was  directed  by 
the  family  physician  to  seek  an  out-of-door  em- 


22 


MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


ployment,  and  lie  engaged  as  driver  of  a  stage¬ 
coach  from  Danbury  to  Kent.  In  those  days 
there  were  few  persons  of  foreign  birth  in  New 
England.  “Every  body  knew  every  body.” 
Life  was  carried  on  with  extreme  simplicity. 
No  employment  was  menial,  certainly  none 
held  in  contempt;  but  the  employment  of 
driving  a  coach  over  the  rugged  roads  of  those 
times,  through  summer  heats  and  the  fearful 
cold  of  winter,  required  almost  as  much  intre¬ 
pidity  as  an  arctic  expedition,  with  all  appli¬ 
ances  and  means  to  boot,  now  does,  and  dis¬ 
cretion  and  humanity  as  well  as  intrepidity. 

We  have  the  relation  of  a  rough- weather  ex¬ 
perience  in  Joseph’s  coach  from  an  old  lady,  a 
cotemporary  of  his,  which  proves  that  the  driv¬ 
ing  of  a  coach  then  was  no  holiday  affair.  This 
old  lady  was  then  a  young  mother,  traveling 
with  “  two  babes,”  as  she  terms  them,  under 
Joseph’s  conduct  from  Danbury  to  Kent.  “  It 
was  night,  and  very  dark  and  very  cold ;  and 
in  a  dreadful  part  of  the  road  the  coach  upset.” 
The  poor  young  mother  was  in  an  agony  of 


BOYHOOD. 


23 


fright  for  her  “babes.”  She  thinks  “she  should 
have  died”  but  for  the  care  of  the  young  coach¬ 
man.  He  took  off  his  coat  and  wrapped  the 
baby  in  it.  There  was  one  old  lady -passenger 
in  the  coach,  not  in  the  least  hurt  by  the  over¬ 
turn,  but  scared  out  of  her  wits  and  her  tem¬ 
per,  and  she  began,  as  our  relator  says,  “  storm¬ 
ing  away,”  pouring  out  her  wrath  on  the  head 
of  the  devoted  J oseph.  He  took  it  all  calmly 
and  gently,  and  only  replied,  “I’ll  carry  you 
all  through  safe,  ma’am,  if  it  be  on  my  back.” 
“And  so,”  says  our  informer,  “he  took  both 
my  babes  in  his  arms,  turning  horse  for  our 
sakes.”  It  was  two  miles  to  their  destined 
inn.  He  went  cheerily  on  with  his  weak  and 
faint-hearted  party,  singing  songs  and  telling 
stories  by  turns,  soothing  the  “babes,”  sustain¬ 
ing  the  young  mother,  and  coaxing  and  cheer¬ 
ing  on  the  grumbling  old  lady  till  she  was  be¬ 
guiled  out  of  her  ill-humor,  and  they  all  ar¬ 
rived  in  good  heart  at  the  inn. 

But  there,  when  the  noble  lad  laid  down  his 
burden,  he  fainted,  and  they  saw  the  blood 


24  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

trickling  from  a  severe  cut  in  liis  forehead, 
which  he  had  not  even  mentioned.  As  soon 
as  he  was  restored  to  consciousness  and  his 
head  bound  up,  faithful  to  his  trust,  “he  start¬ 
ed  off,”  says  our  narrator,  “as  though  nothing 
had  happened,  and  back  he  went  two  miles 
after  his  horses  and  his  broken  coach,  and 
brought  them  safely  to  the  inn.” 

Here  were  manifested  heroic  qualities  such 
as  have  made  renowned  names ;  but  our  friend 
was  destined  to  a  noiseless  life — to  a  place 
among  the  “village  Hampdens,”  the  “mute, 
inglorious  Miltons.” 

We  are  not  informed  how  Joseph’s  time  was 
employed  from  sixteen  to  eighteen,  but  we  may 
fairly  infer  from  what  went  before  and  came 
after  that  it  was  not  misspent  or  wasted.  Such 
harvests  as  his  can  only  be  reaped  in  ground 
well  prepared. 


/ 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  25 


CHAPTER  II. 

CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE. 

“The  country  wins  me  still. 

I  never  framed  a  wish  or  formed  a  plan 
That  flattered  me  with  hopes  of  earthly  bliss 
But  there  I  laid  the  scene.” 

That  is  one  of  the  most  momentous  epochs 
in  a  young  man’s  life  when  he  decides  on  his 
occupation  and  his  place  of  residence.  The 
ordinary  preference  in  our  country  is  of  city 
life  and  mercantile  pursuits. 

A  boy  goes  forth  from  his  pleasant  country 
home,  from  the  watch  and  safe -conduct  of 
his  father,  goes  beyond  the  sweet  sound  of 
“mother,”  the  companionship  of  brothers,  and 
sisters,  and  schoolmates,  from  the  home  where 
every  familiar  thing  is  dear  to  him — the  grass- 
plot,  the  garden,  the  old  oaken  bucket,  the  hens 
around  the  barn  door,  the  old  cows  he  has  daily 


26  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

driven  to  pasture,  the  dog  that  looks  wistfully 
after  him,  even  the  old  cat  that  sits  purring  on 
the  old  gate-post.  He  gives  them  all  a  linger¬ 
ing,  parting  look,  dashes  off  his  tears,  and  soon 
opens  his  eyes  wide  upon  a  new  life.  He  gets 
a  place  in  a  great  dry-goods  shop,  and  passes 
his  days  there.  He  goes  to  a  cheap,  decent 
lodging-house  for  his  meals  and  bed,  but  there 
nobody  cares  for  him,  no  one  knows  him  or 
his  “  folks”  at  home,  or  any  of  the  people  of  his 
own  village  that  have  hitherto  made  up  his 
world ;  there  is  nothing  to  answer  to  the  wants 
of  his  mind  and  heart,  and  so  his  mind  and 
heart  are  starved  out.  He  goes  to  church  on 
Sundays  because  he  knows  “that  will  please 
mother,”  but  he  has  no  interest  there ;  the  min¬ 
ister  is  a  stranger,  the  congregation  are  all 
strangers  to  him,  and  his  thoughts  wander  off 
to  the  “old  meeting-house,”  to  the  dear  famil¬ 
iar  objects  there,  and  to  the  lads  and  lasses  that 
met  him  at  its  door  with  their  pleasant  greet¬ 
ings. 

He  has  a  right  in  the  Mercantile  Library,  but 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  27 

he  has  no  time  to  use  it.  By  degrees  he  gets 
weaned  from  the  old  home.  He  grows  sharp 
at  selling,  and  contentedly  spends  his  days  in 
puffing  up  and  getting  off  his  master’s  goods. 
He  is  proud  to  have  talent  for  trade.  He  is 
valued  by  his  employer.  He  abstains  from  all 
improper  places  of  amusement.  He  compares 
his  prosperous  condition  with  great  satisfaction 
to  other  country  lads,  who  have  been  led  off  by 
the  temptations  of  the  city  into  bad  courses, 
and  have  disappeared,  some  by  an  untimely 
death,  some,  perhaps,  are  living  by  hook  and  by 
crook,  and  some,  alas !  are  finishing  a  term  of 
service  at — Sing  Sing.  But  our  boy  has  kept 
his  eye  on  the  main  chance,  and,  after  years  of 
selling  gloves,  and  measuring  silks  and  laces,  he 
has  got  a  flourishing  business  of  his  own. 
Trade  is  carried  on  by  credit  in  our  country, 
and  the  enterprise  and  trading  ability  of  our 
poor  country  lad  have  proved  as  good  as  mon¬ 
ey  capital  to  him.  He  marries  well — as  the 
world  goes.  Every  year  adds  to  his  wealth 
and  his  mercantile  reputation.  His  name  is 


28  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

“ good”  in  Wall  Street.  His  name  is  among  the 
first  in  all  mercantile  enterprises.  He  buys  a 
grand  house,  with  the  modern  improvements, 
in  a  fashionable  quarter.  He  has  his  carriage 
and  horses.  He  has  gained  his  prize.  From 
his  proud  eminence  he  looks  back  upon  his 
country  home  through  the  wrong  end  of  the 
telescope.  How  shrunken,  and  small,  and  con¬ 
temptible  it  appears ! 

But  alas !  he  has  passed  the  meridian  of  his 
life.  The  days  of  vigor,  of  buoyant  hope,  of 
happy,  hard  work,  are  ended.  Look  in  his  face, 
and  you  will  see  wrinkles  where  dimples  were. 
The  plowshare  of  care  has  cut  furrows  on  his 
brow,  and  his  sallow,  sunken  cheeks  show  that 
the  baleful  shadow  of  dyspepsia  is  settled  on  him. 

And  now ,  at  the  crowning  point  of  his  labors, 
comes  a  change — a  crisis!  The  pillars  of  his 
house  fall ;  and,  wearied  and  heart-sick,  with  a 
family  to  whom  luxuries  have  become  necessa¬ 
ries,  he  has  to  begin  a  struggle  for  bread.  And 
now  he  looks  back  at  his  country -home  through 
the  right  end  of  the  telescope. 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  29 


How  many  at  this  moment  —  November, 
1857 — who,  a  few  months,  a  few  weeks  since 
were  reckoned  among  our  richest  citizens,  are, 
since  “the panic” — the  crisis  and  its  reverses — 
sighing  for  the  security  and  peace  of  a  modest 
country  home. 

“  Seeing  is  believing,”  and  we  can  not  expect 
the  young  who  have  not  seen  to  believe,  but 
surely  we  may  look  to  the  parent — to  the  wise, 
conscientious  parent — to  correct  this  over-press- 

i 

ure  to  the  city,  to  temper  this  haste  to  be  rich. 
It  is  his  business  to  train  his  son  to  a  love  of 
the  country,  to  a  right  estimate  of  the  superior 
stability  and  dignity  of  agricultural  pursuits 
over  the  exciting  and  precarious  race  of  mer¬ 
cantile  life.  We  glory  in  the  go-ahead  spirit 
of  our  country,  but  we  beg  our  young  friends 
to  heed  the  counsel  of  that  renowned  old  pio¬ 
neer  who  said,  “Be  sure  you’re  right,  then  go 
ahead.” 

There  is  a  contrary  migration  which  seems 
to  us  far  safer,  better,  nobler,  than  that  which 
we  have  described,  the  exchange  of  our  over- 


30  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

crowded  city  life  to  a  home  in  those  broad,  glo¬ 
rious  reserves  in  the  West,  where  a  lad  is  re¬ 
moved  from  the  peril  of  bad  associates,  and 
from  the  harassment  of  uncertain  employment ; 
where  competence  is  insured  to  health  and  in¬ 
dustry  ;  where  health  and  industry,  indeed,  are 
better  than  money ;  and  where,  in  devoting  him¬ 
self  to  the  happiest  industry  appointed  to  man, 
the  tilling  of  the  earth,  he  secures  the  u  glorious 
privilege”  of  independence,  and  the  more  glo¬ 
rious  privilege  of  succoring  weaker  and  less- 
favored  wayfarers  in  life  than  himself. 

We  have  digressed  to  make  some  suggestions 
in  conformity  to  the  wish  we  have  often  heard 
Mr.  Curtis  express  that  our  lads  would  go  from 
their  excellent  city  schools  to  the  W est,  whither 
their  star  points  them.  Our  readers  will  par¬ 
don  us. 

In  1800,  Joseph  Curtis,  then  being  eighteen 
years  old,  went  to  New  York,  and  entered  as 
clerk  William  Underhill’s  hardware  store  in 
Pearl  Street. 

We  do  not  know  whether  the  city  was  Mr. 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  31 


Curtis’s  deliberate  choice,  or  whether  he  was 
borne  there  by  the  current  that  sets  that  way. 
Most  of  the  young  men  of  those  country  parts 
of  New  England  that  have  their  business  re¬ 
lations  with  New  York  go  to  that  city.  They 
are  from  their  childhood  (we  are  sorry  to  say 
it)  imbued  with  the  idea  that  to  acquire  prop¬ 
erty  is  the  main  business  of  life,  and  for  this 
purpose  New  York  is  the  great  mart — the  place, 
above  all  others,  where  one  can  make  haste  to 
be  rich.  Few  are  the  young  men  who  can  re¬ 
sist  its  varied  enterprises  and  eager  competi¬ 
tions,  the  aspect  of  its  forest  of  ship-masts,  its 
commerce  to  every  part  of  the  known  world, 
its  gigantic  steam- works,  its  dazzling  display  of 
the  manufactures  and  products  of  all  parts  of 
our  globe,  its  superior  conveniences  and  facili¬ 
ties  in  the  arts  of  life,  its  varied  amusements 
and  enchanting  gayeties. 

None  of  these  things  moved  our  humble 
young  friend.  He  came  from  his  Spartan 
home  with  moderate  desires,  and  with  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  working  honestly  and  faithfully  for 


I 


32  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

those  lie  had  left  behind  him.  The  kind,  hon¬ 
est  Danbury  lad  was  not  changed  by  coming 
to  the  city.  For  his  first  year’s  services  at 
William  Underhill’s  he  was  to  receive  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  his  board.  Of 
this  small  sum  he  gave  his  mother  sixty  dol¬ 
lars,  and  with  the  remainder  paid  for  his  clothes 
and  all  his  incidental  expenses.  We  respect 
money  when  we  see  what  it  can  produce  in  the 
hands  of  one  who  is  both  generous  and  self- 
denying.  Underhill  acknowledged  the  worth 
of  his  clerk,  and  the  second  year  advanced  his 
salary  to  three  hundred  dollars.  Of  course 
Mr.  Curtis  enlarged  his  benefactions,  and  (very 
unlike  most  young  men)  diminished  his  per¬ 
sonal  expenses;  for,  in  addition  to  his  allow¬ 
ance  to  his  mother,  he  supported  two  sisters  at 
school.  We  know  a  college  lad  who  spends 
sixty  dollars  per  annum  for  boots.  The  boots 
may  be  made  by  the  best  French  artist  in 
boots,’  and  our  young  gentleman’s  feet  may  look 
as  well  as  Apollo’s  would  in  boots,  but  at  the 
end  of  the  year  the  boots  are  but  old,  ill-smell- 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE. 


33 


ing  leather ;  and  what  has  been  the  product  of 
Joseph  Curtis’s  filial  gift  of  sixty  dollars?  It 
has  comforted,  and  recompensed,  and  cheered 
his  mother,  and  sent  up,  like  Abel’s  sacrifice,  a 
sweet  incense  to  heaven ;  and  it  has  left  with 
him  a  precious  memory  to  be  pleasant  com¬ 
pany  through  life.  There’s  a  difference  in  out¬ 
lays. 

Joseph  Curtis’s  faithful  service  won  the  en¬ 
tire  confidence  and  approbation  of  his  employ¬ 
er.  But  the  lad’s  heart  was  not  of  the  nature 
of  hardware,  and  it  melted  in  the  glance  of  a 
pretty,  fair-skinned  Quaker  girl  from  Hemp¬ 
stead  Harbor,  Long  Island.  She  was  on  a  visit 
to  her  sister,  one  of  William  Underhill’s  neigh¬ 
bors.  Fifty  years  ago  in  New  York  neighbor 
meant  at  least  acquaintance.  Her  modest  garb 
(a  plain  setting  suits  a  precious  gem)  attracted 
Joseph’s  eye,  and  in  her  old  age  the  dear  old 
lady  confesses  that  the  manly  beauty  of  the 
young  clerk  first  attracted  her,  but  that  no¬ 
bler  part  which  his  goodly  features  indicated 
fixed  her  heart.  Her  sister  said  to  her,  “  Dol- 


34  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ly,  if  tliee  can  get  that  young  man  thee  will  get 
a  treasure.7’  Joseph  Curtis  was  as  honest  in 
his  courtship  as  in  all  the  subordinate  affairs 
of  life.  He  told  Dorothy  that  he  was  poor, 
that  his  father  was  poor,  and  that  he  was  one 
of  fourteen  living  children,  and  must  share  his 
earnings  with  them.  The  fair  Quaker  was  not 
disheartened  by  this  statement ;  she  knew  the 
worth  of  the  treasure  she  had  won,  and  they 
were  married  in  1803,  one  month  before  he 
came  to  his  majority.  Then  his  clerkship  end¬ 
ed,  and  he  was  received  into  partnership  with 
his  employer. 

“How  many  times,”  says  one  of  his  eldest 
nieces,  “  when  only  eight  years  old,  have  I  lis¬ 
tened  to  my  parents’  comments  on  the  trust  and 
respect  shown  to  my  Uncle  Joseph  by  Billy 
Underhill,  and,  when  much  older,  I  have  look¬ 
ed  with  admiration  on  bright  cutlery  and  other 
hardware  articles  he  gave  my  uncle  when  he 
was  married  as  a  testimonial  of  his  esteem  and 
honor.”  These  articles,  kept  bright  by  the 
neat-handed  Quaker  wife,  adorned  the  house 


CLERKSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  35 

which  was  furnished  by  Stephen  Hopkins,  her 
father.  “We  had  little,”  she  says  in  her  pleas¬ 
ant  retrospections  of  that  period  of  her  life,  “but 
we  never  wanted.”  If  to  want  means  to  de¬ 
sire,  we  doubt  if  many  of  our  richest  house¬ 
holders  can  make  this  boast  of  our  friend ;  and 
if  to  have  no  desire  beyond  our  possession  is 
riches,  then  who  is  richest,  the  lady  who  weeps 
because  her  husband  will  not  buy  her  a  fifth 
camel’s-hair  shawl,  or  our  frugal  Quaker  house¬ 
wife,  content  with  her  bright  cutlery  ? 

The  younger  partner  seems  to  have  had  but 
a  small  portion  of  the  profits  of  the  concern. 
For  the  first  six  months  he  received  but  four 
hundred  dollars ;  but  with  such  appliances  as 
taking  a  lodger  and  frugal  housewifery,  he  con¬ 
tinued  his  benefactions,  and  lived  without  in¬ 
curring  debts,  “ wanting  nothing” 


36 


MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HOME  LIFE. 

“  In  the  house  of  the  righteous  is  much  treasure.” 

In  1804  Joseph  Curtis  removed  to  92  Maid¬ 
en  Lane.  There  his  family  occupied  a  part  of 
the  house,  and  there  he  began  the  hardware 
business  on  his  own  account.  There  was  no 
romance  in  his  humble  pursuits  and  domestic 
life.  It  was  a  serene  course  of  love  and  duty. 
He  continued  to  live  and  thrive  there  for  fif¬ 
teen  years.  There  occurred  the  greatest  epoch 
in  a  parent’s  life — the  birth  of  a  first  son.  Old 
Jacob,  in  blessing  his  twelve  sons,  said  to  Reu¬ 
ben,  “  Thou  art  my  first-born,  my  might,  and 
the  beginning  of  my  strength,  the  excellency 
of  dignity  and  the  excellency  of  power.”  There 
is  something  of  this  exultant  spirit  in  every  pa¬ 
rent  ;  and  if,  like  Mr.  Curtis,  he  is  a  man  of 
thoughtful  and  religious  turn,  he  recognizes  in 


37 


HOME  LIFE. 

liis  first-born  the  first  possession  endowed  with 
immortality.  The  boy  was  bright  and  prom¬ 
ising,  and  seemed  to  authorize  the  illimitable 
hopes  he  inspired ;  but  when  only  three  years 
old  he  was  transferred  to  a  higher  school  by  a 
short  but  severe  process.  By  a  sad  accident  he 
was  severely  scalded.  His  father  suffered  no 
hand  but  his  to  dress  his  wounds,  and  no  doubt 
the  skill  of  that  tender  hand  availed  to  lessen 
the  child’s  sufferings.  He  made  no  complaint, 
but  to  all  his  inquiries  replied,  “Better,  dear 
father.”  And  when  he  saw  the  boy’s  eyes 
closing  on  this  world,  he  said,  “Are  you  going 

f 

to  sleep  ?”  “  Yes,”  he  murmured ;  and  fell  into 
that  sleep  which  Glod  giveth  his  beloved. 

Surviving  children  grow  up — grow  into  the 
cares  and  usages  of  life.  They  form  new  rela¬ 
tions.  The  current  of  their  lives  runs  down¬ 
ward.  That  which  is  taken  away  in  the  fresh, 
endearing  loveliness  of  childhood  remains  un¬ 
changed  in  the  parent’s  imagination.  The  mag¬ 
ical  sound  of  the  little  footsteps  is  still  in  his 
home;  the  musical  tones  of  the  young  voice 


38  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

still  ring  there.  There  he  remains,  always  the 
playful,  loving  child,  an  ever-present  beauty 
and  blessing.  So  was  Mr.  Curtis’s  little  boy, 
and  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  fondly  recurred  to 
him. 

At  the  very  hour  of  his  boy’s  departure  his 
eldest  daughter  was  born,  but  so  deep  was  he 
in  sorrow  at  the  moment  that  long  after  he  con¬ 
fessed  to  her  that  he  was  not  conscious  of  one 
throb  of  joy,  and  dreamed  as  little  of  the  light 
that  event  was  to  shed  on  his  life  as  a  traveler 
in  the  depths  of  a  cavern  knows  of  the  glad¬ 
ness  of  the  rising  sun. 

Mr.  Curtis  had  six  children  born  during  his 
residence  at  92  Maiden  Lane,  and  twice  the  an¬ 
gel  of  death  visited  and  consecrated  the  same  ' 
apartment  made  glad  by  the  beginning  of  their 
lives. 

We  have  few  records  of  the  fifteen  years  of 
his  Maiden  Lane  life.  They  flowed  on  obscure 
in  man’s  eyes,  but  sending  up  a  memorial,  like 
Cornelius’s,  of  alms  and  good  deeds.  His 
daughter  remembers  that  he  had  the  custom  of 


HOME  LIFE. 


89 


assembling  in  tlie  evening  young  men,  proba¬ 
bly  apprentices  and  clerks,  for  study  and  mu¬ 
tual  instruction.  “If  I  have  a  vocation,  it  is 
teaching,”  he  often  said;  and  faithfully,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  life,  did  he  recog¬ 
nize  this  vocation. 

There  was  a  beautiful  union  and  mutual  con¬ 
fidence  between  Mr.  Curtis  and  his  sisters. 
They  seem  to  have  recognized  the  relation  as 
one  of  the  nearest  and  dearest,  and  to  have 
cherished  it  with  a  holy  regard  to  its  immortal 
nature. 

“I  well  remember,”  says  one  of  them,  who 
was  at  the  time  a  very  young  observer,  “  his 
beautiful  example  of  reverence  to  his  parents : 
how  he  received  his  father  on  his  visits  to  New 
York ;  with  what  child-like  docility  he  listened 
to  his  father’s  views  and  opinions ;  how  he  hon¬ 
ored  his  every  feeling,  and  strove  to  make  ev¬ 
ery  hour  pleasant  to  him. 

“  And  when  sorrow  came  to  his  own  home, 
and  his  business  was  deranged  by  foreign  wars, 
and  heart  and  hand  were  full,  he  attended  to 


40  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

every  call  of  distress  from  Danbury  (the  resi¬ 
dence  of  his  numerous  relatives),  and  sent  com¬ 
fort  and  assistance  to  my  home.  In  the  midst 
of  his  business  perplexities  his  father  was  struck 
down  with  apoplexy ;  he  came  among  us  on 
the  wings  of  love,  made  arrangements  for  his 
mother,  and  continued  to  comfort  his  suffering 
relatives  with  words  and  acts  of  love.  And 
how  tender  and  delicate  was  his  way  of  succor¬ 
ing  us !  After  he  had  parted  from  us,  a  load 
of  wood  or  coal  would  appear  at  the  door,  or  a 
bank-note  be  found  in  a  book  on  the  table,  or  a 
comfort  or  supply  of  some  necessity.  He  had 
an  eye  to  see  every  suffering,  and  a  heart  to 
supply  every  want,  and  this  in  the  midst  of  his 
domestic  cares  and  duties.” 

We  have  quoted  the  words  of  Joseph  Cur¬ 
tis’s  relative  as  honorable  to  her  as  to  him,  for 
that  gratitude  must  have  been  up  to  fervent 
heat  which  continues  to  flow  after  the  cooling 
lapse  of  more  than  fifty  years  and  the  harden¬ 
ing  tendencies  of  prosperity. 

His  mother  became  wholly  his  charge,  and 


HOME  LIFE. 


41 


lived  thirteen  and  a  half  years  in  his  house,  al¬ 
ways  occupying  its  best  room,  and  attended  by 
his  children  with  filial  reverence.  “Nothing 
was  too  good  for  her,”  says  one  of  them:  “it 
seemed  to  us  her  queenly  right.”  Seven  of  his 
sisters  he  took,  one  after  another,  into  his  fam¬ 
ily,  and  treated  them  as  his  children.  Several 
of  them  were  married  from  his  house.  He  as¬ 
sisted  his  brothers  in  their  business,  assuming 
the  relation  of  parent  to  them.  He  was  their 
endorser.  One  of  his  sisters,  a  widow,  he  aided 
to  the  utmost  limit  of  his  ability;  and  his 
nephews  and  nieces  have  the  blessed  memory 
of  many  a  benefaction  from  this  earthly  provi¬ 
dence  of  their  family — of  aid  in  their  education, 
aid  in  their  business,  aid  wherever  and  when¬ 
ever  they  needed  and  he  could  give.  His  ben- 
efactions  were  not  limited  to  the  fifteen  years 
in  Maiden  Lane,  but  diffused  through  his  whole 
life.  “  And  yet,”  says  one.  of  his  family,  a  faith¬ 
ful  observer  of  his  life,  and  not  an  exaggerator 
of  his  good  deeds,  “  our  dear  father  did  no  more 
than  was  his  duty  toward  his  kindred  (a  noble 


42  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

view  of  family  duty  this !).  He  never  alluded 
to  any  act  of  his  for  his  family  as  unusual,  or 
calling  for  self-approval.”  And  Joseph  Curtis 
was  never  a  wealthy  man,  but  a  man  of  small 
gains — a  man  of  wise  counsel  and  great  heart. 

Among  Joseph  Curtis’s  domestic  benefac¬ 
tions,  screened  from  the  world’s  observation  in 
the  privacy  of  his  home,  was  one,  not  pictu¬ 
resque,  not  in  any  way  to  be  idealized,  but  in 
its  gracious  Christian  beauty  unsurpassed  by 
those  brilliant  examples  of  friendship,  Castor 
and  Pollux,  and  the  two  Quintilians.  He  had 
a  brother,  Judson,  who  suffered  from  epileptic 
attacks,  and  was  rendered  imbecile  by  them. 
He  had  some  dim  rays  of  intelligence  and  fee¬ 
ble  pulsations  of  affection  that  made  him  con¬ 
scious  of  well-being  and  perceptive  of  kindness. 
This  brother  Mr.  Curtis  kept  for  twenty-six 
years  in  his  own  home,  assuming  the  whole 
burden  of  his  maintenance,  and  the  whole  re¬ 
sponsibility  of  his  comfortable  sensations ;  for 
of  any  nearer  approach  to  happiness  than  mere 
sensation  he  was  not  capable.  The  poor  man 


HOME  LIFE. 


43 


was  as  dependent  as  a  little  child  upon  personal 
care.  This  care  his  brother  never  delegated  to 
another,  and  never  would  suffer  him  to  be  de- 
-pendent  on  a  menial  for  any  service  whatever, 
so  long  as  he  himself  was  able  to  perform  it. 
His  dress  was  scrupulously  attended  to,  and  his 
person  cared  for  as  a  tender  mother  cares  for 
her  child.  The  poor  inyalid  was  liable  to  sul¬ 
kiness — to  fits  of  passion.  His  gentle  brother 
and  his  eldest  daughter,  and  they  alone,  could 
manage  and  subdue  him.  After  giving  some 
painful  particulars  of  the  labor  that  this  xare 
imposed  upon  her  father,  Miss  Curtis  says,  u  As 
Judson  grew  older  he  lost  the  use  of  his  limbs, 
and  for  two  years  prior  to  his  death  was  con¬ 
fined  to  a  chair  on  wheels ;  all  this  time  I  never 
heard  my  father  complain,  only  look  sad,  and 
sigh.  Many  a  time  has  dear  father  turned 
aside,  taken  a  restorative,  dropped  a  tear,  and 
gone  to  his  work  untiringly.  Eight  months 
before  his  death  we  (his  children)  rebelled. 
Father  was  too  feeble  to  lift  him,  and  he  resign¬ 
ed  him  to  the  kind  care  of  his  sister,  whose 


44  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

hand  had  long  been  ready  to  receive  him. 
Daily  father  saw  him,  always  shaved  him,  and 
frequently  assisted  the  nurse  in  changing  him. 
He  left  us  on  the  first  of  June,  and  died  the 
following  December.  His  last  words  were 
4  Brother  Joseph .’  Father  answered,  4  My  dear, 
your  mother  waits  for  you.’  Is  there  not 
a  most  touching  scriptural  simplicity  in  this 
.  parting  ?  The  word  4  brother  ’  comprises  the 
whole  capacity  of  a  human  being  for  loving 
and  blessing,  and  the  answer  tenderly  recog¬ 
nizes  the  mother  waiting  to  receive  the  spirit 
of  her  child  released  from  the  obstruction  and 
burden  of  its  mortal  investment. 

44  He  was  buried,”  continues  Miss  Curtis, 
44  from  our  house,  just  three  months  before 
father.  I  can  not  forget  father  looking  upon 
him  in  his  coffin.  4  He  was  a  harmless  man,’ 
he  said:  4 he  has  filled  his  mission,  and  now, 
daughter,  my  work  is  finished;’  and  so  it 
proved.  My  father  would  not  have  died  so 
quietly  had  he  left  Judson  behind  him.” 

It  was  the  only  task  he  grudged  to  delegate 


HOME  LIFE. 


45 


to  another,  the  only  one  he  seemed  to  feel  as¬ 
sured  he  could  perform  better  than  another. 

This  keeping  to  himself  this  loving  duty  was 
the  only  approach  to  selfishness  (selfishness!) 
we  have  heard  of  in  his  long  life.  One  of  Mr. 
Curtis’s  sisters,  a  lady  possessed  of  ample  for¬ 
tune,  affectionately  insisted  on  assuming  the 
charge  of  this  unfortunate  brother ;  but  Joseph 

had  done  the  duty  till  it  had  become  his  hap- 
* 

piness,  and  he  could  not  part  with  it.  When¬ 
ever  his  children  or  friends  would  urge  him  to 
resign  it,  he  would  reply,  11 1  am  sure  my  moth¬ 
er  looks  down  with  approbation  on  my  con¬ 
duct.”  This  was  the  single  instance  of  an  ap¬ 
proach  to  self-commendation. 

To  estimate  this  work  of  love,  it  must  be  re¬ 
membered  that  it  was  carried  on,  without  once 
faltering,  through  a  series  of  twenty-six  years 
— laborious  years,  years  of  unintermitting  ac¬ 
tivity,  years  whose  leisure  moments  were  con¬ 
secrated  to  beneficence — that  he  never  let  go 
his  fraternal  grasp  till  the  burden  dropped  from 
his  weakened  arms  in  his  seventy-fifth  year! 


46  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

In  writing  of  Iris  family  life,  Miss  Curtis  says, 
“I  recollect  my  father  always  cheerful  and 
happy,  and  never  letting  an  opportunity  where¬ 
by  we  could  be  improved  pass.  His  habit  was 
to  gather  us  around  him  and  propound  ques¬ 
tions  ;  for  instance,  ‘  Which  of  you  can  tell  me 
how  glass  is  made?’  ‘Where  does  iron  come 
from  ?’  then  followed  reading,  and  at  the  next 
early  evening  we  were  catechised.”  Again  she 
says,  “  My  father’s  family  government  was  per¬ 
fect.  He  never  struck  me,  but  he  has  given 
me  sleepless  nights  by  his  grieved  but  com¬ 
manding  eye  of  displeasure.  I  recollect  de¬ 
ceiving  him  when  I  was  about  seven  years  old. 
He  spoke  decidedly,  ‘  Go  up  stairs.’  In  a  short 
time  he,  with  mother,  came  to  me.  They  sat 
still,  and  looked  very  sorry.  I  saw  a  little 
switch  in  his  hand.  I  perfectly  remember  my 
conclusion,  ‘If  you  strike  me,  I  will  do  it  again.’ 
Father  read  my  defiant  look.  He  laid  the  stick 
aside.  I  see  the  whole  scene  now.  He  sighed, 
and  tenderly  called  me  to  him.  He  waited  a 
few  moments,  and  then  pictured  his  very  naugh- 


HOME  LIFE. 


47 


ty  daughter.  ‘He  would  not  whip  me,’  he 
said ;  ‘  I  must  go  to  bed ;  if  I  were  hungry,  I 
could  eat,  but  not  with  him  or  mother.’  Shall 
I  ever  forget  that  night  ?  He  would  not  hear 
my  concessions,  would  not  kiss  me,  but  long  be¬ 
fore  he  was  up  in  the  morning  I  was  let  into 
his  room  and — forgiven. 

11  My  sisters,  between  whom  there  were  two 
years,  when  about  nine  and  eleven  were  petu¬ 
lant  to  each  other.  Reproof  failed  to  correct 
the  habit.  At  last  there  was  an  outbreak.  The 
four  children,  as  usual,  were  summoned  to  his 
presence.”  (It  is  notable  that  Mr.  Curtis  uni¬ 
formly  treated  the  subjects  of  his  government, 
whether  his  own  children,  his  apprentices,  or 
the  juvenile  delinquents  of  the  Refuge,  as  peers. 
He  made  them  virtually  the  judges  of  his  laws, 
and  the  tribunal  to  which  he  demonstrated  the 
justice  of  their  execution  in  detail.)  “After  a 
silent  meditation,  my  father  said,  ‘  Children, 
you  must  part ;  to-night  you  sleep  together  for 
the  last  time.  I  shall  send  you  to  separate 
boarding-schools,  and  when  you  again  live  to- 


48  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

getlier  perhaps  you  will  have  learned  to  love 
one  another;  until  you  have  learned  that  les¬ 
son,  do  not  expect  to  return  to  this  home.’ 
There  was  weeping.  "We  all  did  our  part.  I 
was  sixteen  years  old.  I  knew  father  was  in 
earnest,  and  I  saw  no  escape  from  the  sentence. 
He  kissed  me  and  my  brother  ”  (not  the  offend¬ 
ers).  “  He  then  bade  the  girls  to  go  to  bed. 
There  was  but  one  thing  before  them — to  obey. 
As  I  always  put  them  to  bed,  I,  as  usual,  start¬ 
ed  to  go  with  them.  ‘ Go,’  said  my  father,  ‘but 
do  not  speak  to  them.’  Poor  girls,  how  they 
cried!  I  saw  them  in  bed,  and  kissed  them. 

E - said,  ‘  Ask  father  to  come ;’  he  did  not, 

but  walked  the  hall.  After  a  while  they  slept, 
locked  in  each  other’s  arms.  Before  daylight 

E - was  at  his  door.  ‘  Father,  may  we  come 

in?’  ‘Yes,’  spoken  as  always,  kindly.  ‘Well, 
children  ?’  ‘  Father,  won’t  you  kiss  us  ?’  ‘  Yes, 
after  you  have  kissed  each  other.’  They  then 
said,  ‘  Oh,  father,  do  not  send  us  away.’  Their 
punishment  was  commuted.  They  were  not 
sent  away ;  but,  though  permitted  to  remain  at 


HOME  LIFE. 


49 


home,  they  were  not  permitted  to  speak  or 
play  together  till  they  could  do  both  with  un¬ 
interrupted  love. 

u  This  state  of  things,”  says  their  sister,  u  did 
not  long  exist.  To  this  hour  the  lesson  has 
not  been  forgotten.  They  never  since  have 
spoken  unkindly  to  each  other.  They  have 
differed,  but  without  anger.” 

Joseph  Curtis,  as  one  might  expect  from  his 
general  orderliness,  was  as  stanch  a  lover  of 
punctuality  as  that  good  man  who  held  it  in 
his  scale  of  virtues  next  to  godliness.  When 
one  of  his  daughters  was  about  fifteen,  she  fell 
into  the  besetting  sin  of  young  ladies,  of  pre¬ 
cious  few  of  whom  it  can  be  said,  “  Up  rose  the 
sun,  and  up  rose  Emily.” 

The  delinquent  was  reproved  by  her  father, 
but  went  on  transgressing.  One  morning,  with¬ 
out  preface  or  comment,  he  said,  “  My  daugh¬ 
ter,  go  to  bed  to-night  at  half  past  eight :”  this 
was  in  the  month  of  June.  The  penalty  was 
not  effective.  The  young  lady  was  behind 
time  the  next  morning,  and  received  no  other 

D 


50  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

reproof  than  “Gro  to  bed,  my  daughter,  this 
evening  at  half  after  seven.”  And  so  the  bright 
June  afternoons,  so  joyous  to  a  happy  girl,  were 
curtailed  till  the  embryo  fine  lady  was  reformed 
altogether,  and  took  her  seat  beside  her  father 
at  his  exact  time. 

These  may  seem  small  particulars,  but  they 
will  serve  to  show  how  the  preserving  habits 
and  virtues  of  home  life  were  formed  and  taught 
by  this  wise  and  patient  parent. 

One  of  Mr.  Curtis’s  relatives  writes  with  a 
touching  earnestness  of  the  annual  family  as¬ 
semblages  at  this  favorite  uncle’s  (this  “dear 
uncle  Joseph’s”  house)  for  twenty-one  consec¬ 
utive  years.  “  How  serene  and  joyful  was  his 
face  as  he  took  his  seat  in  the  large  arm-chair, 
and  called  around  him  the  young  people  (his 
own  children,  and  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
his  thirteen  brothers  and  sisters)  who  had  shared 
the  bountiful  feast  he  had  provided  for  them ! 
How  gentle  and  loving  he  was  to  all!  I  be¬ 
lieve  there  are  few  wranglers  for  high  honors 
at  our  universities  and  colleges  that  feel  greater 


HOME  LIFE. 


/ 


51 


satisfaction  in  success  than  did  our  little  ones. 
Each  produced  the  gift-book  given  by  ‘  Uncle 
Joseph’  at  the  preceding  New  Year  holiday. 
Those  who  had  read  and  well-used  their  books 
joyfully  answered  his  call.  If  an  admonition 
were  needed,  how  kind  it  was !  how  impressive 
his  reproof!  how  many  of  his  lessons  have 
made  impressions  never  to  be  effaced!  It 
seems  to  me  that  he  omitted  no  opportunity.” 
We  have  inserted  at  length  this  testimony  of 
an  eye-witness:  it  is  better  than  an  elaborate 
encomium.  It  proves  that  Joseph  Curtis,  in 
his  philanthropic  career,  did  not  overlook  the 
duty  nearest  to  him.  His  beneficence  radiated 
from  the  central  point,  home.  He  had  a  strong 
feeling  for  the  claims  of  blood,  and  so  Chris- 
tianly  modest  was  he  in  his  benefactions  to  his 
family  that  some  of  them  are  ignorant  to  this 
day  that  the  help  came  from  “  Uncle  Joseph.” 

It  may  be  asked  how,  with  his  moderate 
means,  he  was  able  to  do  all  this.  How,  with 
a  growing  family  to  support,  sustained,  in  com¬ 
fort  and  respectability,  frugally,  but  never  stint- 


52  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ed,  lie  was  able  so  liberally  to  impart  to  others. 
We  answer  that  be  was  diligent  in  business; 
that  be  did  tborougbly  whatever  be  undertook 
to  do ;  that  be  bad  a  judicious  econony ;  that  be 
was  strictly  temperate,  and  abstemious  in  per¬ 
sonal  expenses ;  and,  finally,  that  through  all  bis 
life  be  held  to  one  tenet  of  bis  good  old  father 
— the  Sandimanian’s  Creed — and  never  suffer¬ 
ed  property  to  accumulate.  His  practical  faith 
was, 

“Savings  are  but  thrown  away. 

Hoarded  manna, 

Moths  and  worms  shall  on  it  prey.” 

He  left  nothing  at  the  risk  of  financial  “pan¬ 
ics.11  All  was  safely  invested  according  to  the 
good  old  rule,  “that  which  is  given  is  saved.” 
His  example  is  open  to  all  who  neither  aim  at 
riches  or  fear  poverty ;  and  let  it  be  remember¬ 
ed  that  riches  and  poverty  are,  for  the  most 
part,  mere  fancy  terms. 

“For  he  that  needs  five  thousand  pounds  to  live, 

Is  full  as  poor  as  he  that  needs  but  five.” 

Mr.  Curtis  was  a  very  capable  man  of  busi¬ 
ness,  and  he  went  on  successfully  till  the  war 


HOME  LIFE. 


53 


of  1812  and  the  famous  Milan  decrees  of  Napo¬ 
leon,  which  so  embarrassed  the  business  world 
and  ruined  thousands,  extended  their  baleful  in¬ 
fluence  to  his  humble  industry ;  and  though  he 
manfully  sustained  himself  till  1817,  he  then 
failed,  and  surrendered  every  thing — his  house¬ 
hold  furniture  even — to  his  creditors.  They 
bore  a  well-deserved  testimony  to  his  integrity 
and  worth  by  refusing  to  accept  it. 

“My  impressions  of  those  troubled  days,” 
writes  Miss  Curtis,  “  are  most  vivid.  I  was  ten 
years  old,  the  eldest  of  four,  when  he  assigned 
his  every  dollar.  It  proved  insufficient  to  sat¬ 
isfy  one  of  his  creditors.  In  those  days  we  had 
a  debtor’s  jail,  and  given  city  limits.  To  the 
latter  he  was  consigned.  I  never  shall  forget 
the  hour  he  left  us.  I  never  had  seen  him 
weep  before.  He  kissed  us,  and  when  the  door 
closed  upon  us,  child  as  I  was,  my  heart  knew 
its  first  sorrow ;  but  once  since  have  I  known 
the  same  utterly  abandoned  loneliness.” 

The  allusion  is  to  the  last  saddest  hour  in 
family  life,  when  the  parent  is  borne  away  to 
his  final  rest. 


54  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

v  ■  4  • 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TPIE  MANUMISSION  SOCIETY. 

A  city  is  a  great  field  for  philanthropic  la¬ 
bor.  When  Joseph  Curtis  began  his  career  in 
New  York,  the  city  did  not  contain  100,000  in¬ 
habitants,  and  it  was  comparatively  in  a  healthy 
moral  state.  Philanthropy  was  not  then  the 
necessity,  nor,  we  may  say,  the  fashion  that  it 
now  is.  The  country  was  then  young,  and 
generous  spirits  found  channels  for  action  in 
moulding  its  fresh  political  institutions. 

Dr.  Bellows,  in  his  funeral  sermon  for  Mr. 
Curtis,  to  which  we  are  largely  indebted  for 
the  material  of  our  little  volume,  says,  “We 
must  remember  that  fifty  years  ago  the  igno¬ 
rant,  the  weak,  and  abandoned,  the  slave,  the 
prisoner,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  blind,  had  not 
drawn  to  themselves  the  attention  even  of  the 
Christian;  and  when  we  arc  estimating  the 


THE  MANUMISSION  SOCIETY.  55 

claims  on  our  gratitude  of  the  founders  of  our 
public  schools,  the  projectors  of  asylums  and 
houses  of  refuge,  the  starters  of  emancipation, 
we  are  not  to  forget  that  the  lamp  of  their  char¬ 
ity  sprung  up  in  utter  darkness,  and  was  trim¬ 
med  without  the  notice  of  men,  and  fed  by  none 
of  the  sympathy  and  admiration  of  society  at 
large.” 

It  is  rather  startling  to  remember  that  as 
lately  as  1811  it  was  necessary  to  institute  a 
“  Manumission  Society”  in  our  now  free  State 
of  New  York,  and  this  fact  may  make  us  a  little 
more  compassionate  to  our  brothers  of  the 
South,  whose  escutcheon  still  bears  the  blot  of 
this  dreadful  institution.  And  not  only  was 
slavery  then,  in  some  measured  and  diminishing 
form,  tolerated  in  our  state,  but  hard  men  here, 
as  they  do  elsewhere,  took  advantage  of  it,  and 
“  a  large  number  of  slaves  in  the  state,  and  es¬ 
pecially  in  the  city,  entitled  to  their  freedom  by 
existing  laws,  were  t  still  held  in  slavery  by 
crafty  masters.” 

The  “  Manumission  Society”  was  established 


56  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

to  right  the  wrongs  of  those  thus  dishonestly 
held  in  bondage,  and,  farther,  to  provide  for 
the  utter  extinction  of  slavery  in  the  state. 
Joseph  Curtis  became  a  member  of  this  society 
in  1811.  It  is  very  common  for  men  to  join 
philanthropic  enterprises  from  a  sudden  im¬ 
pulse  or  flare-up  of  feeling,  and  idle  men  and 
women,  having  nothing  else  to  do,  follow  this 
fashion  of  the  day,  and  some,  it  is  possible, 
from  the  mere  vain  love  of  seeing  their  names 
in  the  newspapers  in  good  company.  But  we 
may  be  sure  Joseph  Curtis  was  of  none  of  these. 
“  Deeds,  not  words,”  was  the  motto  of  his  life. 
He  was  every  where  a  diligent  head  and  heart 
worker.  He  joined  the  Manumission  Society 
in  1811,  and  was  associated  in  the  standing 
committee  with  men  still  held  in  grateful  re¬ 
membrance  as  public  benefactors — Peter  A. 
Jay,  Cadwallader  Colden,  Isaac  M.  Ely,  and  oth¬ 
ers.  “  There  were  some  hundreds  of  cases  of 
trial  occurring  every  year  between  slaves  claim¬ 
ing  and  masters  denying  their  right  to  freedom, 
and  nearly  every  one  of  these  was  looked  after 


THE  MANUMISSION  SOCIETY.  57 

and  the  slaves’  rights  vindicated  by  Joseph 
Curtis.”  For  eight  years  he  worked  in  this 
holy  cause.  This  was  not  the  work  of  an  idle 
man  who  is  trying  to  fill  up  vacant  hours,  or 
even  conscientiously  employing  leisure  time, 
but  it  might  be  strictly  called  11  over- work” — 
work  over  and  above  that  done  every  day  to 
supply  the  necessities  of  his  family — work  only 
to  be  remunerated  when  to  every  man  shall  be 
rendered  according  to  his  work. 

But,  though  not  paid  in  any  sordid  sense,  his 
labors  were  gratefully  recognized.  After  spend¬ 
ing  three  winters  in  Albany  as  an  outside  at¬ 
tendant  on  the  sittings  of  the  Legislature  there, 
his  labors  and  those  of  his  coadjutors  were  suc¬ 
cessful,  and  in  the  session  of  1817  an  act  of  uni¬ 
versal  emancipation  was  passed.  To  signalize 
his  great  part  in  that  honorable  occasion,  and 
when  such  gifts  were  not  prostituted,  as  they 
now  are,  to  noisy  politicians  and  accidental  suc¬ 
cesses,  a  pair  of  silver  pitchers  was  presented 
to  him.  Each  of  them  bears  a  vignette  repre¬ 
senting  Mr.  Curtis  as  the  slave’s  champion,  hold- 


58  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ing  in  one  hand  a  mirror,  which  reflects  the 

light  upon  two  slaves  whose  manacles  the  God- 
•  % 
dess  of  Liberty  is  loosing,  while  with  the  other 

he  points  to  a  black  school-child  pondering  over 
his  school-book.  The  design  was  in  the  earli¬ 
est  infancy  of  art  in  our  New  World,  and  cer¬ 
tainly  is  not  artistical,  but  its  meaning  is  “  plain 
and  precious.”  The  inscription  is  simply, 

Manumission  Society  of  New  York 
to 

Joseph  Curtis. 

Act  31.  March,  1817. 

There  was  a  completeness  in  all  Joseph  Cur¬ 
tis’s  labors.  He  did  not  drop  his  interest  in 
the  cause  of  the  colored  people  when  he  obtain¬ 
ed  the  manumission  act.  He  took  part  in  the 
institution  of  schools  for  their  children,  frequent¬ 
ly  visited  them,  and,  in  particular,  one  at  Flat- 
bush.  This  he  attended  every  Sunday.  “He 
left  home,”  says  Miss  Curtis,  “at  half  past  four 
in  the  morning,  walked  to  Flatbush,  a  distance 
of  six  miles,  taught  all  day,  and  returned  at 
evening.” 


THE  MANUMISSION  SOCIETY.  59 

-gp.  V  "* 

Mr.  Curtis  regarded  his  final  success  in  this 
mission  of  mercy  as  one  of  the  happiest  events 
of  his  life,  and  he  sometimes  referred  to  the 
17th  of  February,  1817,  when  he  froze  his  face 
in  mounting  the  bleak  hill  to  the  Capitol  at 
Albany  as  one  of  the  proudest  days  of  his  life. 
“  I  feel  I  have  not  lived  quite  in  vain,”  he  said, 
“  when  I  consider  the  passage  of  the  Manumis¬ 
sion  Act.”  He  had  a  moral  alembic  of  his  own, 
by  which  his  own  happiness  was  evolved  from 
that  he  procured  for  others.  Not  many  days 
before  his  death,  but  while  he  was  yet  in  his 
usual  health,  a  friend,  in  talking  with  him,  re¬ 
ferred  to  his  part  in  the  passage  of  the  Manu¬ 
mission  Act.  “The  memory  of  it,”  he  said, 
“  will  smooth  my  very  dying  pillow.”  “  Truly 
it  is  what  we  ha’  dune  for  others,  and  not  what 
we  ha’  dune  for  oursel’,  that  we  think  on  maist 
pleasantly  in  that  hour.” 

In  considering  this  portion  of  his  beneficent 
labors,  Dr.  Bellows,  in  his  funeral  sermon,  said, 
“  Mr.  Curtis  was  so  strenuous  a  believer  in  the 
sacredness  of  law,  that  his  anti-slavery  sympa- 


60  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

thies  never  went  along  with  the  Abolitionists ; 
but  in  all  that  could  be  done  under,  or  with 
the  consent  of  law,  no  man  exceeded  him  in 
anti-slavery  feeling  and  zeal.” 


THE  HOUSE  OF  -REFUGE. 


61 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 

“I  was  sick,  and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me.” 

A  HAN  of  Joseph  Curtis’s  capabilities  could 
not  long  remain  out  of  business.  In  1820  be 
became  chief  superintendent  and  financier  for 
James  P.  Allaire,  who  was  at  that  time  embar¬ 
rassed  for  want  of  means  to  prosecute  his  great 
enterprise.  Mr.  Curtis  had  no  money  to  offer 
his  friend ;  but  integrity,  character,  in  a  business 
community,  is  virtually  money.  By  these,  Mr. 
Curtis  had  such  influence  with  the  directors  of 
the  Franklin  Bank  that  he  obtained  aid  from 
that  institution  for  Mr.  Allaire,  and  he  began 
his  brilliant  career  of  prosperity,  which  went 
on,  while  his  friend,  before  long,  obedient  to 
his  high  calling,  turned  aside  to  succor  the 
wretched  and  instruct  the  ignorant. 


62  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

“  Man  may  not  stay ;  there  is  no  rest 
On  earth  for  the  good  man’s  foot. 

He  should  go  forth  on  errands  bless’d, 

And  toil  for  unearthly  fruit.” 

It  has  already  been  said  that  Mr.  Curtis  re¬ 
garded  teaching,  in  some  of  the  varied  forms 
of  the  schoolmaster,  as  his  vocation — his  mis¬ 
sion.  Children  were  the  special  objects  of  his 
solicitude.  In  them  he  recognized  a  hope  for 
the  future  of  his  country. 

The  condition  of  the  children  in  our  city  who 
are  born  of  vicious,  or  ignorant  and  negligent 
parents,  and  of  such  as  are  left  to  the  casualties 
of  orphanage,  was  an  anxious  concern  to  him. 
He  felt  the  injustice  of  society  in  leaving  these 
wretched,  helpless  little  creatures  without  train¬ 
ing  or  notice  of  any  sort,  and  then,  for  inevita¬ 
ble  vices  or  petty  crimes,  condemning  them  to 
prison,  and  to  the  corrupting  society  of  such  as 
were  hardened  by  long  experience  of  crime. 
He  had  a  gift  to  discern  God’s  image,  obscured 
as  it  might  be  by  rags  and  dirt,  and  all  the  mis¬ 
erable  habits  of  vagrancy.  When,  in  his  walks 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


68 


about  the  wharves  and  in  the  ship-yards,  he 
met  a  gang  of  rowdy  boys  with  ragged  clothes 
and  unwashed  faces,  he  paused  to  observe  them 
at  “marbles,”  “pitch-pennies,”  or  some  rough¬ 
er  game.  He  soon  became  interested  in  the 
gleams  of  intelligence  that  appeared  in  one 
boy’s  superior  skill  over  another.  Disputes 
would  arise;  oaths  and  blows  follow;  then 
came  the  moment  for  Mr.  Curtis  to  interpose ; 
and  when  he  saw  the  most  audacious  boy  mol¬ 
lified  by  his  gentle  voice  and  calm  reproof,  and 
saw  eyes  brimming  with  tears  upturned  to  him 
(for  he  who,  when  a  boy  himself,  had  mastered 
wild  horses,  could,  with  like  gentleness,  subdue 
these  little  outlaws),  and  watched  the  latent 
spark  of  love  at  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  re¬ 
kindling  by  the  breath  of  his  love,  and  the 
smiles  coming,  and  the  lingering  look  after 
him  as  he  turned  from  them,  he  said,  “  These 
boys  might  be  saved.”  And  when  he  met 
poor  little  brawlers  in  the  street,  or  young 
things,  bare-headed  and  bare-footed,  dodging 
into  areas  with  the  empty  alms-baskets,  and 


64  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

mouths  full  of  lies,  put  into  their  lips  instead 
of  morning  prayers,  he  would  say,  still  seeing 
in  their  young  faces  traces  of  the  hand  that 
made  them,  “They  ought  to  be  saved.” 

And  finally,  when  he  saw  children — mere 
children — in  the  police  courts  condemned  to 
prison  for  petty  pilfering,  and  to  contact  with 
men  steeped  in  crimes,  horrible  schoolmasters 
in  iniquity,  his  heart  cried  out,  “  They  must  be 
saved.” 

And  so  arose  the  “  House  of  Refuge  for  Ju¬ 
venile  Delinquents,”  and  under  Joseph  Curtis’s 
fatherly  discipline  we  have  the  best  testimony 
that  many  were  saved. 

After  revolving  the  project  of  this  institu¬ 
tion  for  a  year  in  his  busy  head  and  busier 
heart,  he  first  communicated  it  to  John  Pin- 
tard,  Jr.  We  know  nothing  of  Mr.  Pintard, 
but  we  could  envy  the  man  selected  by  Mr. 
Curtis  to  whom  first  to  confide  this  novel  plan 
of  beneficence,  sure  to  be  carped  at  by  the 
“doubtful  and  unbelieving.”  Happily,  there 
was  at  the  time  an  association  of  patriotic  and 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


65 


enlightened  men  bound  together  for  the  sup¬ 
pression  of  crime  and  pauperism.  These  gen¬ 
tlemen,  fifteen  in  number,  met  during  the  win¬ 
ter  of  1815-16  at  Mr.  Curtis’s,  and  there  thor¬ 
oughly  and  patiently  investigated  the  sources 
of  crime  and  poverty  in  our  city,  and  finally, 
as  the  best  result  of  their  labors,  carried  out 
Mr.  Curtis’s  project,  and  established  the  House 
of  Refuge.  u  This  was  the  very  beginning  of 
an  effort  to  substitute  kindness,  care,  and  good 
influence  for  punishment  in  the  discipline  of  ju¬ 
venile  offenders — the  commencement  of  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  preventive  measures  in  the  treatment  of 
the  exposed  and  criminal  classes.”*  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis’s  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  his 
zeal  and  love,  pointed  him  out  as  the  best  per¬ 
son  to  fill  the  office  of  superintendent.  He  was 
accordingly  appointed,  and  he  accepted  it.  The 
imperfect  working,  or  failure  of  most  kindred 
enterprises,  is  owing  to  the  want  of  some  essen¬ 
tial  qualification  in  their  principal  officers.  We 
do  not  expect  a  painter,  a  sculptor,  or  a  poet  to 


*  Dr.  Bellows’s  Sermon. 

E 


66  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

succeed  unless  lie  has  a  talent  for  his  art,  or 
that  strong  bias  for  it  which  ends  in  talent; 
and  yet  men  are  appointed  to  the  most  delicate 
and  difficult  of  all  arts,  the  developing  and 
training,  and  even  the  curing  of  a  human  soul, 
who  can  not 11  sound  its  lowest  note,”  or  govern 
“  one  of  its  ventages.”  Mr.  Curtis  had  a  divine 
commission  in  his  own  nature  for  his  great 
work.  As  Michael  Angelo  is  said  to  have  dis¬ 
cerned  in  the  rough  block  of  marble  the  figure 
he  was  to  shape  out  of  it,  so  this  heaven-in¬ 
structed  artist  saw  in  the  rude,  defaced  human 
subject  the  elements  that  could  be  worked  to 
excellence  and  beauty ;  and  he  went  bravely 
to  his  great  task.  How  he  labored  in  his  studio , 
and  how  he  succeeded,  will  be  satisfactorily 
shown  by  two  letters  which  have  been  gener¬ 
ously  placed  at  our  disposal. 

It  will  appear  by  these  letters,  as  well  as  in 
a  document  written  by  Mr.  Curtis  himself,  that, 
as  in  his  subsequent  government  of  his  appren¬ 
tices,  order  was  the  first  law  of  this  institution ; 
that  unswerving  justice  was  maintained,  and 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


67 


that  the  same  spirit  of  love  that  regulated  the 
apprentices  redeemed  the  young  convicts. 
There  was  much  more  to  be  done  for  the  juve¬ 
nile  offenders  than  for  the  apprentices.  The 
work  was  more  complicated.  They  had  not 
only  to  be  taught — they  were  to  be  unlearned ; 
but,  coming  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives 
under  the  law  of  love,  they  were  more  suscep¬ 
tible,  and  more  generous  in  their  responses  to 
it.  Love  was  Mr.  Curtis’s  key-note,  and  the  ef¬ 
fect  he  produced  with  it  would  remind  one  (who 
has  ever  seen  the  experiment)  of  the  regular 
and  beautiful  forms  into  which  grains  of  sand, 
in  a  chaotic  state,  are  transposed  by  a  single 
note  of  music. 

Our  first  testimonial  is  a  letter  addressed  to 
Miss  Curtis  from  a  man  who  had  no  education 
before  he  went  to  the  u  House  of  Refuge,”  and 
who  has  since  had  no  opportunity  of  supplying 
this  want,  having  spent  his  early  life,  after  he 
left  the  u  Refuge,”  in  trading  voyages  to  for¬ 
eign  parts,  but  who  now,  placed  in  an  employ¬ 
ment  of  trust  by  one  of  our  first,  most  loved, 


68  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

and  most  honored  citizens,  has  given  and  is 
giving  to  his  seven  children  the  education  of 
which  he  knows  the  worth  by  the  want  of  it. 
In  reply  to  an  inquiry  from  the  writer  of  this 
memoir  as  to  the  disposition  of  his  letter,  he 
thus  nobly  volunteers  his  willingness  to  pub¬ 
lish  it.  “I  am  not  only  willing,”  he  says,  “but 
glad  to  have  my  letter  used.  My  children 
know,  and  thank  God  that  it  was  Mr.  Curtis 
who  made  me  the  man  I  am.” 

The  letter  is  addressed  to  Miss  Curtis.  We 
have  not  presumed  to  alter  it  except  by  the 
omission  of  parts  irrelevant  to  our  subject,  and 
by  amending  the  spelling.  It  has  seemed  to 
us  a  sacred  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  writer’s 
friend,  as  well  as  an  important  testimony  to  the 
soundness  of  Mr.  Curtis’s  system  of  reformato¬ 
ry  treatment. 

“You  ask  me,”  says  the  writer,  “to  recol¬ 
lect,  if  I  can,  of  some  of  his  (Mr.  Curtis’s)  young 
days,  or  what  he  said  about  them.  I  remember 
of  his  telling  me  how  hard  he  had  to  labor  to 
get  schooling,  to  encourage  me  to  improve  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


69 


opportunity  I  had.  My  first  sight  of  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis  was  in  1825.  I  was  in  prison,  and  under 
the  law  for  crime.  I  was  an  orphan,  well  ac¬ 
quainted  with  all  the  crimes  that  man,  woman, 
or  boy  can  commit.  I  hated  all  that  was  good 
in  man  or  woman  till  I  saw  Mr.  Curtis,  and  for 
some  months  I  hated  him,  till  his  kind  love 
won  my  love.  His  first  conversation  with  me 
was  all  kindness,  to  show  me  I  would  not  be 
punished  for  the  crimes  I  had  committed,  but 
for  any  I  should  commit  while  under  his  charge ; 
that  if  I  told  the  truth,  and  did  as  well  as  I 
knew  how,  he  would  make  a  man  of  me.  At 
first  I  could  not  believe.  I  had  heard  too 
many  persons  promise  the  same ;  but  he  was 
the  only  man  who,  under  all  circumstances, 
never  forgot  his  promise  to  any  boy  or  girl,  to 
my  knowledge,  and  I  had  good  chance  to  know. 
His  first  point  to  gain  was  to  convince  each 
boy  and  girl  that  he  did  not  wish  to  punish 
them,  but  to  gain  them  by  love ;  for  when  he 
had  to  punish,  he  would  talk  long  and  kindly 
to  the  boy  or  girl,  till  the  tears  would  flow  from 


70  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


his  own  eyes,  and  then  from  the  person  that 
was  to  be  punished,  till  those  that  were  looking 
on  felt  more  sorrow  for  his  feelings  than  for 
the  boy.  He  would  say,  1  My  son,  it  is  hard,  I 
feel  it  hard,  but  the  body  must  suffer  to  make 
the  mind  obey.’  His  plan  was  for  the  boys  to 
try  each  other  by  jury,  and  he  was  the  judge. 
Each  boy  made  his  complaint,  and  called  wit¬ 
nesses,  and  then  it  went  to  the  jury,  and  if 
found  guilty,  the  number  of  stripes  was  named 
by  the  foreman,  and  Mr.  Curtis  put  it  on,  not 
in  anger,  but  in  mildness,  telling  them  all  the 
time  how  it  grieved  him.  The  boy,  after  pun¬ 
ishment,  had  no  hard  thoughts  of  him,  but  felt 
truly  sorry  and  ashamed  to  offend  him.  The 
first  capital  offense  (as  the  phrase  was  with  the 
boys)  which  I  committed  was  an  attempt  to  run 
away  by  getting  over  the  wall.  Another  boy 
and  myself  hid  under  Mr.  Miller’s  dwelling- 
house  at  dusk,  and  when  the  roll  was  called  we 
were  missed.  We  were  soon  found,  and  oh !  the 
sensation,  the  dread  of  meeting  that  kind  face 
with  so  kind  a  smile  was  worst  of  all.  ‘My 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


71 


son,  have  you  got  tired  of  doing  well?  I  am 
very  sorry  you  could  not  believe  me  that  this 
was  a  good  home,  and  the  best  you  could  have 
at  present.  Now  I  must  punish  you,  and  it 
hurts  me  more  than  it  does  you.’ 

“  One  case  that  happened  to  myself  bears  very 
strong  upon  my  mind  even  to  this  day.  After 
trying  to  escape,  and  being  caught,  how  power¬ 
ful  was  the  punishment  of  his  taking  me  to 
walk  with  him  alone,  and  putting  his  arm 
around  my  neck,  and  his  hand  in  my  bosom, 
and  speaking  such  kind  words  that  it  ought  to 
win  any  one.  A  case  to  show  us  his  reliance 
on  a  good  Grod  was  in  1826  or  ’27.  There  was 
a  rumor  of  the  world  coming  to  an  end;  and 
on  one  particular  night  there  was  to  be  a  ring 
around  the  moon,  and,  sure  enough,  there  was, 
and  many  began  to  fear.  About  eight  o’clock 
that  summer  evening,  he  said,  ‘My  sons,  you 
see  that  ring,  as  they  have  foretold.  It  denotes 
nothing  to  fear  for  those  that  do  as  well  as  they 
know  how.’  He  talked  kind  and  long  till  our 
fears  departed. 


72  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

u  Another  plan  he  had  to  punish  the  wicked 
and  encourage  the  good  was  to  give  cake  and 
coffee  at  eleven  A.M.  on  Sunday  morning. 

u  Any  boy  that  went  the  full  week  without  a 
complaint  received  his  cake  and  coffee,  and  the 
others  had  to  go  without  it  till  they  could  do 
better. 

11  Another  (regulation),  which  was  a  great  in¬ 
ducement  to  principle  and  honor,  was  to  permit 
any  boy  that  finished  his  work  by  Saturday 
afternoon,  or  by  twelve  A.M.,  to  go  and  swim, 
and  spend  the  afternoon  at  liberty ;  and  oh, 
how  sweet  was  liberty  to  them  that  had  been 
inclosed  for  months  by  walls !  And  then  the 
strong  temptation  to  leave  when  finding  com¬ 
panions  that  would  lead  us  off  if  they  could ; 
but  it  never  happened,  I  believe,  in  any  one 
case.  And,  also,  any  boy  that  behaved  well 
was  permitted  to  go  to  the  city  to  see  his  friends, 
and  those  friends  would  often  endeavor  to  per¬ 
suade  them  to  leave  and  break  their  word,  but 
they  would  return  to  meet  that  kind  smile  that 
we  all  loved  to  meet. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


73 


“  If  a  boy  ran  away,  and  came  back  himself, 
he  was  forgiven,  and  placed  with  the  best  boys, 
and  the  gates  would  be  opened  for  him  any 
time  when  he  had  done  his  work. 

“  In  going  up  stairs,  it  would  often  happen 
that  some  boy  would  stamp  and  drawl  his  feet 
after  him  very  bad ;  then  Mr.  Curtis  would  call 
all  down  again,  and  send  them  up  again,  and 
continue  the  same  process  till  all  went  up  very 
light  and  easy. 

“For  exercise,  he  would  form  the  boys  in 
line,  and  then  run,  the  boys  doing  their  best  to 
come  up  to  him — very  few  could  do  it — then 
to  the  house  for  breakfast. 

“When  at  table  there  was  no  talking.  If 
you  wanted  the  waiter  you  held  up  your  hand, 
your  thumb  for  vinegar,  for  bread  three  fingers, 
for  salt  one  finger,  and  so  on. 

“  On  Sunday,  after  meeting,  it  was  the  cus¬ 
tom  to  appoint  monitors  for  the  day  in  differ¬ 
ent  parts  to  see  that  order  was  kept. 

“After  tea,  in  the  long  winter  evenings,  it 
was  his  custom  to  sit  with  us  and  have  some 


74  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


narrative  read,  Riley’s  or  Paddock’s  a  part  of 
the  time ;  and  then  he  would  inform  us  who 
were  the  inventors  of  the  most  useful  articles 
we  were  acquainted  with,  and  end  by  singing 
and  telling  stories.”* 

The  writer  concludes  by  complaining  of  the 
difficulty  of  writing  his  recollections,  and  says, 
“If  it  is  your  wish,  I  will  come  on,  if  God 
spares  me,  and  answer  any  questions,  and  do 
all  I  can,  with  great  pleasure,  to  have  an  op¬ 
portunity  of  doing  any  thing  for  his  honor  or 
yours.” 

*  In  relation  to  this  memorable  period  of  her  father’s 
life,  Miss  Curtis  says,  “His  Refuge  days  were  engrossing, 
for,  save  his  sleeping  hours,  few  were  passed  with  his  fami¬ 
ly.  My  brother  and  I  were  permitted  to  join  him  at  the 
Refuge  table  after  their  supper,  and  listen  to  father’s  pleas¬ 
ant  conversations,  always  eliciting  replies  from  some  one. 
Indeed,  the  year  I  passed  there  is  fraught  with  pleasant 
memories.  I  never  knew  how  wicked  the  children  had  been , 
and  did  not  know  that  they  were  worse  than  myself. ”  How 
full  of  pity  must  have  been  his  heart  who  could  thus  guard 
these  little  outcasts  with  a  parent’s  tenderness,  and  how 
wise  to  cultivate  their  self-respect  by  the  respect  of  others  ! 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


75 


It  is  not  uncommon  for  the  Pharisees  of  this 
world,  in  their  self-complacent  security,  to  look 
down  with  indifference,  or  contempt,  or  total 
disbelief  of  any  likelihood  of  reform  upon  such 
subjects  as  the  writer  of  the  above  letter  was 
when,  as  he  frankly  states,  “lie  was  well  ac¬ 
quainted  with  all  the  crimes  that  man,  woman, 
or  boy  can  commit.”  These  Pharisees  and  Le- 
vites  would  pass  him  by,  comfortably  conclud¬ 
ing  that  his  moral  diseases  were  incurable. 
Joseph  Curtis  had  a  better  faith.  The  boy 
was  sick  and  in  prison,  and  in  the  name  of  his 
Master  he  visited  him,  and  in  the  miraculous 
power  of  that  name  he  laid  his  hand  upon  him, 
and  he  was  made  whole.  His*susceptibility  to 
kindness,  his  generous  affections,  and  his  in¬ 
ward  truth  were  brought  out,  and,  in  his  own 
honest  words,  he  was  made  the  “man  he  is,” 
honored  with  places  of  high  trust,  and  more 
honored  with  the  confidence  and  fatherly  affec¬ 
tion  of  Joseph  Curtis’s  life-time. 

We  remember  chancing  at  Mr.  Curtis’s  house 


76  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


on  one  occasion,  when  we  observed  that  bis  se¬ 
rene  face  was  lighted  with  an  expression  of  un¬ 
usual  joy,  and  asked  the  cause  of  it.  “  S - 

arrived  this  morning,”  he  said,  “and  came 
straight  from  the  ship  to  my  house ;  he  is  a 
good  fellow — a  dear  fellow.” 


The  second  document  to  which  we  have  al¬ 
luded  is  the  subjoined  letter.  It  was  written 
by  one  who  had  opportunities  for  the  closest 
observation  of  Mr.  Curtis’s  superintendency  of 
the  House  of  Refuge. 

It  needs  no  comment.  Its  eloquent  truths 
will,  we  feel  sure,  reach  many  hearts.  It  is  ad¬ 
dressed  to  Miss  Curtis.  Their  father’s  friend¬ 
ships  are  the  richest  inheritance  of  his  chil¬ 
dren. 


“New  York,  Nov.  13,  1857. 

“Friend  Anna, — You  informed  me  a  few 
days  since  that  Miss  Sedgwick  was  about  to 
prepare  for  the  press  a  brief  memoir  of  your 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


77 


recently  deceased  and  ever-to-be-lamented  fa¬ 
ther,  and  that  you  and  she  were  both  desir¬ 
ous  of  obtaining  such  little  incidents  of  his  ca¬ 
reer  as  might  serve  to  illustrate  his  pure  and 
beautiful  nature  —  such,  more  especially,  as 
marked  his  life  during  his  superintendency  of 
the  House  of  Refuge. 

“I  would  that  this  troublesome  period  did 
not  engross  so  entirely  each  hour  of  every  bus¬ 
iness  man’s  time ;  then,  perhaps,  I  could  more 
efficiently  aid  you  in  carrying  out  your  wishes. 
As  it  is,rI  will  endeavor,  however  imperfectly, 
to  say  a  few  words  which  perhaps  your  friend 
may  not  deem  unworthy  of  embodiment  in  her 
sketch  of  your  blessed  father’s  life. 

“  He  was  the  first,  if  I  have  been  correctly 
informed,  to  conceive,  or,  at  least,  the  first  to 
impress  upon  the  public  mind  the  idea  of  a  ne¬ 
cessity  for  the  separation  of  the  confirmed  from 
the  juvenile  offender  against  the  laws  of  society. 
Out  of  this  thought,  and  his  earnest  advocacy, 
grew  the  ‘  Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Ju¬ 
venile  Delinquents,’  he  being  its  first  superin- 


78  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

tendent.  The  house  was  opened  on  the  first 
of  January,  1825,  on  the  site  of  the  old  Powder 
House,  now  Madison  Square,  with  very  limit¬ 
ed  accommodations,  the  apartments  previously 
used  by  government  officers  being  allotted  to 
your  father’s  family  as  a  residence,  and  the  bar¬ 
racks,  apportioned  to  soldiers  during  the  war 
of  1812  and  1815,  set  off  for  the  reception  of 
such  children  as  were  deemed  proper  recipients 
of  this  well  -  designed  and  beautiful  public 
charity. 

“  Well,  Anna,  your  father  was  not  only  your 
father,  and  the  father  of  his  own  immediate  off¬ 
spring,  but  the  parent  and  friend  of  every  little 
vagrant,  every  neglected  orphan,  every  youth¬ 
ful  violator  of  law  committed  to  his  care. 

“His  gentleness  and  interest  in  their  happi¬ 
ness  he  immediately  made  manifest  to  their 
dark  and  benighted  understandings.  His  mode 
of  addressing  them,  so  affectionate  and  touch¬ 
ing —  ‘My  children;’  his  words  of  kindness 
and  softness,  so  new  to  their  ears,  never  failed 
to  secure  their  immediate  confidence ;  his  con- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


79 


vincing,  appealing,  and  sympathetic  voice,  his 
mild  and  beautiful  eyes,  as  he  looked  into  those 
whom  he  interrogated,  never  failed  to  touch 
their  hitherto  impracticable  hearts ;  and  while 
their  tears  flowed,  the  whole  story  of  their  hard 
young  lives  was  poured  forth  in  the  best  elo¬ 
quence,  because  the  eloquence  of  truth  and  na¬ 
ture. 

“It  was  your  father’s  custom  (Grod  bless 
him!)  each  evening  to  assemble  the  children 
committed  to  his  care,  and  to  seat  them  on  both 
sides  of  a  long  table,  he  being  at  the  head,  and 
to  invite  them  to  ask  him  questions  upon  such 
subjects  as  might  occur  to  their  minds — the  va¬ 
rious  processes  of  manufacture — the  method  of 
producing  certain  results  from  certain  opera¬ 
tions.  I  remember  that  once  a  boy,  aged  about 
twelve  years,  inquired, 1  What  attracts  the  mag¬ 
net  to  the  north  pole?’  I  see  your  father’s 
face  now ,  as,  after  a  pause,  he  replied,  ‘  The  fu¬ 
ture  life  of  a  boy  asking  that  question  is  mark¬ 
ed  and  determined.’  And  it  was  so.  He  be¬ 
came  a  ship-master  of  high  repute,  acquired 


80  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

wealth,  and  unfortunately  lost  his  life  on  a  voy¬ 
age  from  a  Southern  port  to  New  Wales  some 
ten  years  since. 

“  Your  father,  during  the  hours  set  aside  for 
recreation,  would  participate  in  the  sports  and 
amusements  of  ‘  his  children .’  I  have  seen  him 
play  at  the  game  of  base-hall  with  them.  I 
have  seen  him  assist  them  in  the  making  and 
Hying  of  their  kites,  shooting  at  marbles,  ‘  long 
taw’  and  ‘  short  taw,’  spinning  tops,  and  at  all 
other  sports  loved  so  well  by  the  young,  and 
so  necessary  to  the  young ;  but  when  the  hour 
of  recreation  was  passed,  the  past  familiarity 
was  at  once  forgotten ;  and  while  each  boy  loved 
him,  each  boy  feared,  and  reverenced,  and  obey¬ 
ed  him. 

“  His  government  was  mild  and  gentle,  but 
most  positive ;  he  ivould  have  unqualified  obe¬ 
dience  ;  and,  though  corporal  punishment  was 
most  distasteful  to  him,  he  failed  not  to  inflict 
it  when  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  disci¬ 
pline.  I  remember  one  illustrative  case  that 
may  not  be  uninteresting. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


81 


“  Two  boys,  known  as  hard  cases,  were  sent 
to  the  Refuge  from  the  Sessions.  Soon  after 
their  commitment,  one  of  them  attempted  to 
escape,  was  detected,  and  punished.  His  com¬ 
panion  reproached  him  for  submission,  and, 
with  an  oath,  threatened  resistance  to  the  death 
under  kindred  circumstances.  Mr.  Curtis  hap¬ 
pened  to  overhear  the  young  rebel,  and  his 
course  was  at  once  taken.  It  may  not  be  im¬ 
proper  to  premise  that  the  instrument  of  chas¬ 
tisement  used  by  him,  though  incapable  of 
bruising,  was  capable,  when  applied  to  sensitive 
cuticles,  of  producing  a  stinging  and  smarting 
sensation  exceedingly  painful.  Your  father 
said  to  the  boy  when  brought  before  him, 

1 W - ,  you  have  attempted  to  overthrow  my 

authority  by  inciting  your  fellow  inmates  to 
insubordination,  and  have  imposed  upon  me 
the  painful  necessity  of  punishing  you.  Re¬ 
move  your  jacket.’  ‘I  won’t.’  This  refusal 
wras  immediately  followed  by  a  smart  applica¬ 
tion  of  the  whip  to  one  cheek,  with  a  repetition 
of  the  order  to  remove  his  jacket.  ‘I  won’t, 

F 


82  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

by  ....!’  The  whip  fell  with  added  force 
upon  the  opposite  cheek.  The  contest  lasted  for 
several  minutes,  the  boy  preserving  his  dogged 
obstinacy,  and  your  father  his  quiet  determina¬ 
tion  to  subdue  him.  At  length  the  jacket  was 
taken  off,  and  petulantly  thrown  upon  the 
floor. 

“  ‘  Take  up  your  garment,  and  hang  it  or¬ 
derly  over  the  back  of  that  chair.’  This  com¬ 
mand  was  also  obeyed,  but  with  a  reluctance 
that  was  not  submissiveness. 

“  ‘Now  remove  your  shirt.’  Here  the  boy 
burst  in  tears ;  but  he  stripped  himself  of  his 
under-garment,  and  stood  nude,  humiliated,  and 
subdued.  The  poor  young  wretch,  I  suppose, 
expected  to  be  flayed  alive ;  but  no  such  pur¬ 
pose  rested  in  the  gentle  heart  of  his  conquer¬ 
or;  his  object  was  accomplished,  and  he  only 
said,  ‘  W - ,  you  have  compelled  me  to  pun¬ 

ish  you  against  my  will ;  you  have  compelled 
me  to  enforce  an  obedience  which  should  have 
been  willingly  yielded ;  now  resume  your  gar¬ 
ments,  take  your  seat  in  your  class,  and  avoid 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


83 


again  subjecting  me  to  the  pain  you  have  this 
day  occasioned  me.’  The  boy  did  so ;  his  con¬ 
duct  from  that  day  forth  was  irreproachable, 
and  he  is  now  one  of  the  wealthiest  oil-mer¬ 
chants  in — well,  in  one  of  our  Eastern  whaling 
ports. 

“  Mr.  Curtis  had  a  strange  and  almost  mirac¬ 
ulously  quick  insight  into  human  character. 
He  seemed  to  know,  by  immediate  instinct,  the 
precise  kind  of  treatment  each  subject  commit¬ 
ted  to  his  care  demanded,  whether  a  course  of 
reserve  and  distance,  or  of  familiarity  and  con¬ 
fidence;  and  thus  he  always  knew  where  to 
award  praise  and  censure,  reward  and  punish¬ 
ment,  appropriate  to  each  individual  character. 

11 1  remember  one  case  of  punishment,  inflict¬ 
ed  by  him,  that  I  presume  was  felt  more  acute¬ 
ly  than  any  other  ever  imposed  by  him  during 
his  continuance  at  the  Refuge.  One  of  the 
boys  committed  to  his  care  was  an  especial  fa¬ 
vorite;  he  was  thought  to  possess  a  larger 
share  of  intelligence,  a  better  natural  intellect, 
than  most  of  the  other  inmates  of  the  house. 


84  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

He  was  active  as  a  squirrel,  fleet  as  a  deer,  and 
your  father  loved  him — for  the  best  of  all  rea¬ 
sons — because  he  loved  your  father.  On  a  cer¬ 
tain  occasion,  during  the  absence  of  Mr.  Curtis, 
the  young  rogue,  in  the  overflowing  exuber¬ 
ance  of  his  full  blood,  found  his  way  to  the 
summit  of  the  wall  surrounding  the  premises, 
and  fearlessly  leaped  to  the  ground  on  the  out¬ 
side.  He  afterward  impudently  sought  the 
gate  leading  to  the  inclosure,  and  demanded 
admission,  grounding  his  right  upon  the  plea 
of  1  tenantry,’  and  deeming  that  he  had  perpe¬ 
trated  an  act  of  exceeding  cleverness.  Your 
father,  of  course,  heard  of  it  upon  his  return, 
and,  summoning  the  delinquent  to  his  presence, 
addressed  him  thus :  4  You  never  committed  an 
act  so  unwise  since  I  first  knew  you.  You 
have  shown  every  boy  inside  of  these  walls 
how  he  may  escape;  you  have  subjected  the 
managers  of  this  society  to  the  expense  of  ren¬ 
dering  escape  more  difficult  by  adding  to  the 
height  of  that  inclosure.  I  am  displeased  with 
you.  You  have  offended  me.’  He  turned  his 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


85 


back,  and  did  not  for  two  days  thereafter  no¬ 
tice  the  boy.  The  offender  could  not  endure 
this  any  longer;  he  went  to  him  whom  he 
loved,  and  said,  ‘  Mr.  Curtis,  dear ,  good  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis,  forgive  me.  I  can  not  eat,  I  can  not  sleep 
"until  I  have  your  forgiveness.  I  did  not  know 
the  wrong  I  was  committing ;  I  did  not  think 
at  all.’  Pardon  thus  humbly  asked  was  freely 
accorded,  and  that  same  boy,  Anna,  now  ar¬ 
rived  at  middle  age,  and  having  acquired  opu¬ 
lence  and  position,  I  saw  among  the  saddest  of 
the  mourners  who  followed  the  remains  of  that 
purely  good  man,  your  father,  to  his  last  rest¬ 
ing-place. 

“That  active  philanthropist,  John  Pintard, 
in  1825  presented  to  the  Refuge  library  a  copy 
of  1  Sturm’s  Reflections  on  the  Works  of  God.’ 
The  work  consists,  if  you  remember,  of  a  series 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty -five  brief  essays  on 
various  subjects,  one  being  appropriated  to  each 
separate  day  of  the  year.  It  was  Mr.  Curtis’s 
wont  to  read  one,  each  on  its  designated  day, 
to  the  children  over  whom  he  presided.  How 


86  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

well  I  remember — shall  I  say  how  gratefully  I 
remember  ? — the  beautiful  and  Christian  pa¬ 
tience  he  exhibited  in  making  plain,  by  diagram 
and  illustration,  to  the  ignorant  and  uneducated 
minds  surrounding  him,  the  wonders  of  Grod’s 
creation  as  exhibited  in  that  most  wonderful 
book. 

“  The  Sabbath-day,  during  your  father’s  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  Refuge,  was  made  emphatically 
a  day  of  rest — a  festival  day.  The  food  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  children  was  a  little  varied  from 
their  every-day  diet.  The  boys  and  girls  were 
permitted  to  walk  about  the  premises  in  sepa¬ 
rate  groups  until  called  in  to  the  general  recep¬ 
tion-room  to  listen  to,  and  be  improved  by, 
some  simple  lecture,  beautifully  and  happily 
adapted  to  their  uninformed  minds.  Many 
gentlemen  residing  in  the  neighborhood  took 
a  strong  interest  in  the  institution,  and  heartily 
co-operated  with  Mr.  Curtis  in  promoting  the 
happiness  and  improvement  (especially  on  the 
Sabbath-day)  of  his  interesting  charge.  Among 
these  may  be  named  prominently  that  free- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


sr 


handed  and  large-hearted  philanthropist,  Peter 
Cooper,  then,  perhaps,  in  the  incipient  expecta¬ 
tion  of  the  extended  prosperity  which  has  since 
so  deservedly  crowned  his  efforts. 

“I  venture  to  assert  that  if  the  surviving 
portion  of  the  Kefuge  boys  and  Refuge  girls  of 
1825  and  1826  could  be  convened  at  this  day, 
they  would  present  an  assemblage  of  as  respect¬ 
able  men,  and  of  as  virtuous  wives  and  moth¬ 
ers  as  could  be  selected  from  a  corresponding 
number  taken  from  any  class  of  society  living 
at  the  same  period,  and  that  all  of  them  would 
impute  their  redemption  from  a  life  of  misery 
and  wretchedness  to  the  influence  of  Joseph 
Curtis. 

“  ‘By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.7 - 

“Mr.  Curtis  was  a  gentleman  in  the  fullest 
and  most  comprehensive  sense  of  the  word. 
If  he  committed  an  error,  he  was  ever  willing 
to  acknowledge  it.  If  he  misjudged  any  one 
with  whom  he  was  associated,  the  apology  was  - 
ever  prompt  and  immediate.  If  he  undesign- 
edly  wounded,  he  was  always  ready  to  apply 


88  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

the  healing  balm.  Shall  I  relate  a  little  inci¬ 
dent  shadowing  out  this  beautiful  trait  in  his 
beautiful  character  ? 

“  He  had  a  few  boys  at  the  Refuge,  selected 
as  worthy  his  especial  confidence,  to  guard  and 
watch  others  of  a  more  refractory  nature,  and 
to  prevent  any  escape  on  their  parts  from  the 
premises.  Once,  upon  the  occasion  of  evening 
roll-call,  an  inmate  failed  to  answer  to  his  name, 
and  was  deemed  to  have  eluded  the  vigilance 
of  his  guards.  It  was  determined  that  he  could 
have  escaped  from  only  one  outlet,  and  the  boy 
having  supervision  of  it  was  charged  with  neg¬ 
ligence,  and  threatened  with  a  loss  of  your  fa¬ 
ther’s  confidence.  I  well  remember  his  tearful 

remonstrance :  ‘  Mr.  Curtis,  J - S - is  not 

off  these  premises :  he  is  concealed  somewhere ; 
he  has  not  escaped  me.  I  know  I  have  been 
faithful  to  the  trust  you  have  reposed  in  me: 
let  us  search.’  The  search  was  kept  up  with¬ 
out  avail  until  midnight,  yet  the  watch-boy 
would  not  yield  his  opinion,  and  prayed  per¬ 
mission  to  go  into  the  fields  and  watch.  He 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


89 


was  humored,  and  after  waiting  an  hour  with 
lynx  eyes  and  impatient  spirit,  he  detected  the 
runaway  descending  a  scaffold-pole  on  the  outer 
side  of  the  wall.  To  pounce  upon  him  as  a 
hound  pounces  upon  a  hare  was  but  the  work 
of  a  moment,  and  he  was  triumphantly  recon¬ 
ducted  into  the  inclosure  whence  he  had  es¬ 
caped. 

“  After  your  father  had  disposed  of  the  dere¬ 
lict  one,  he  took  the  hand  of  the  boy  whom  he 
had  misjudged,  and  said,  ‘I  have  been  unjust 
to  you :  I  am  sorry  for  it.  Kiss  me,  my  son ; 
good-night.  Go  to  bed  and  sleep ;  it  is  late.’ 
But  that  boy  was  too  happy  and  too  exultant 
to  sleep  that  night.  He  had  enjoyed  your  fa¬ 
ther’s  approving  smile,  his,  word  of  commenda¬ 
tion  ;  and  these  were  more  precious  to  the  chil¬ 
dren  he  governed  than  any  other  reward,  how¬ 
ever  substantial  in  character. 

u  I  happened  in  your  father’s  office  in  Spring 
Street  one  day  in  April,  1827.  A  boy  who 
had  formerly  been  under  his  care,  and  who  was 
going  West,  came  to  say  farewell.  The  lad 


90  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

doubted  the  stability  of  his  own  resolutions  of 
reformation,  and,  with  overflowing  eyes,  said, 
1  Oh !  Mr.  Curtis,  I  do  not  remember  ever  to 
have  listened  to  a  father’s  admonitions,  but  I 
feel  that,  could  I  be  with  you  or  under  your 
immediate  supervision,  I  should  never,  never 
again  go  astray.’  He  was  taken  gently  by  the 
hand  and  thus  addressed:  ‘My  son,  consider 
me  as  your  father,  and  let  every  act  of  your  fu¬ 
ture  life  be  preceded  by  the  self-imposed  ques¬ 
tion,  “  Would  my  father  approve  this?”  ’  The 
boy  went  on  his  way,  and  is  now  at  the  head 
of  one  of  the  largest  publishing  houses  in  the 
State  of  Ohio. 

“Your  father  was  especially  distinguished 
for  his  great  love  of  order  and  system,  and  for 
the  most  scrupulous  cleanliness.  He  loved  the 
free  air  of  Grod’s  free  atmosphere,  and  he  loved 
that  all  should  inhale  it  in  its  unmixed  purity. 
His  method  of  ventilation  has,  I  believe,  been 
adopted  in  most  of  our  public  institutions.  His 
theories  on  this  most  important  subject  were 
first  brought  into  practical  operation  in  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


91 


construction  of  the  new  House  of  Refuge,  and 
were  found  eminently  beneficial.  The  best  il¬ 
lustration  of  this  is  perhaps  exhibited  in  the 
fact  that  during  his  government  of  eighteen 
months  at  the  Refuge,  with  a  family  of  chil¬ 
dren  averaging  nearly  one  hundred  daily,  not 
one  single  death  occurred.  The  location  selected 
for  the  buildings  was  not  a  healthful  one.  It 
was  surrounded  by  swampy  grounds  and  stag¬ 
nant  ponds,  and  was  redolent  of  miasmatic  in¬ 
fluences.  Intermittent  and  remittent  fevers 
were  the  prevalent  diseases,  and  in  the  summer 
season  many  children  were  prostrated.  Giood 
ventilation  and  strict  cleanliness  were  doubt¬ 
less  excellent  auxiliaries  to  their  recovery,  but 
these  were  not  all.  They  had,  besides,  anxious 
and  affectionate  nursing.  Many  a  time  at  mid¬ 
night  have  I  seen  that  good  Samaritan,  your 
father,  with  noiseless  tread  move  from  couch 
to  couch,  bathing  a  heated  forehead  here,  cool¬ 
ing  a  hot  cheek  there,  moistening  the  parched 
lips  and  fevered  tongue  of  another,  and  all  with 
a  gentleness  unsurpassed  by  woman’s  gentle- 


92  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ness.  Oil,  Anna!  I  know  liis  children  hold 
his  memory  in  sacred  reverence ;  they  can  not 
do  so  overmuch. 

“  The  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  discourse  at  your  father’s  funeral,  justly 
remarked  that  he  was  known  to  thousands  of 
children.  He  might  have  gone  farther.  It 
would  be  hardly  extravagant  to  say  that  he 
was  known  to  most  of  the  children  in  this  wide¬ 
ly  extended  metropolis.  I  have  frequently 
walked  with  him  in  localities  where  the  poor 
most  do  congregate.  I  have  seen  their  sports 
suspended,  and  have  heard  them  smilingly 
whisper  one  to  the  other,  ‘  That  is  Mr.  Curtis ; 
do  you  know  him?  I  do.1  They  would  all 
seem  to  crave  from  him  some  little  sign  or  to¬ 
ken  of  recognition;  and  when  his  hand  was 
laid  on  the  head  of  one,  and  the  cheek  of  anoth¬ 
er  affectionately  patted,  the  chin  of  a  third  gen¬ 
tly  chucked ,  the  hair  of  another  softly  stroked 
down,  and  the  loving  and  encouraging  word 
spoken  to  all,  then  were  the  seeds  of  his  own 
generous  nature  broadcast,  and,  like  bread 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


93 


thrown  upon  the  waters,  will  be  found  after 
many  days. 

“He  was  ever  full  of  the  spirit  of  Christ 
when  he  said,  ‘Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me;’  and,  ‘Love  one  another.’  In  con¬ 
clusion,  I  may  quote  from  a  less  sacred  author¬ 
ity,  ‘  He  was  a  man :  take  him  for  all  in  all,  we 
shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again.’  ” 


It  may  surprise  those  who  have  forgotten 
that  Columbus  was  cast  down  from  the  emi¬ 
nence  he  had  attained  and  taken  home  a  pris¬ 
oner,  or  those  who  have  never  observed  how 
the  prejudiced,  the  ignorant,  inexperienced,  and 
conceited  obstruct  with  medieval  notions,  or 
their  own  crude  ideas  fostered  by  their  petty 
vanities,  the  most  enlightend  projects,  to  hear 
that  Mr.  Curtis  was  opposed  by  petty  distrusts 
and  meddling.  Hr.  Bellows,  in  the  funeral  ser¬ 
mon  from  which  we  have  already  quoted,  thus 
states  the  circumstance  that  led  to  Mr.  Curtis’s 
resignation  of  the  office  of  superintendent. 


« 


94  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

u  On  one  occasion  a  boy  ran  away,  and,  after 
a  few  days,  fall  of  penitence  for  bis  ingratitude, 
returned,  confessed  bis  fault,  and  entreated  for¬ 
giveness.  Satisfied  of  bis  sincerity,  Mr.  Curtis 
forgave  bim.  Tbe  directors,  doubting  tbis  pol¬ 
icy  of  mercy,  disapproved  bis  conduct,  and  in¬ 
structed  bim,  by  unanimous  vote,  to  give  tbis 
runaway  a  certain  number  of  lasbes.  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis  begged  tbem  to  reconsider  tbeir  order.  He 
bad  from  bis  heart  forgiven  tbe  boy,  wbo  bad 
returned  to  duty,  and  bad  only  seen  good  from 
bis  course ;  be  could  not  inflict  wbat  must  now 
be  a  pure  vengeance  upon  bis  back.  Tbe  di¬ 
rectors,  however,  reasserted  tbeir  directions  to 
lash  bim.  Again  be  remonstrated,,  and  again 
they  reaffirmed  tbeir  order,  with  instructions 
to  tbe  committee  not  to  leave  tbe  premises  un¬ 
til  they  bad  seen  tbe  blows  inflicted.  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis,  seeing  no  alternative,  then  came  forward 
with  tbe  keys  of  tbe  institution,  and  said,  ‘  Gen¬ 
tlemen,  I  am  not  a  slave-driver,  and  I  can  not 
whip  a  boy  whom  from  my  heart  I  have  for¬ 
given.  I  resign  tbe  keys  of  tbe  Kefuge.’  Tbe 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


95 


directors,  moved  by  his  firmness,  and  respect¬ 
ing  his  convictions,  did  not  accept  his  resigna¬ 
tion,  and  remitted  the  lashes.  But  he  found 
himself  so  hampered  by  a  policy  that  put  little 
faith  in  human  nature,  and  doubted  the  power 
of  love,  that  he  did  not  long  retain  his  position.” 
He  could  not,  with  his  steadfastness  in  truth 
and  justice.* 

Matters  were  harmonized  for  the  time,  but  it 
was  quite  evident  there  could  not  be  joint  ac¬ 
tion  between  minds  so  diametrically  opposed 

*  It  is  satisfactory  to  find  an  accordance  of  opinion  on 
the  subject  of  corporal  punishment  between  the  best  govern¬ 
ors  of  youth  our  age  has  produced.  Dr.  Arnold’s  biogra¬ 
pher  says  of  him,  “  He  made  flogging  only  his  ‘ratio  ulti¬ 
ma;’  ”  and,  “Talking  he  tried  to  the  uttermost.”  Dr.  Ar¬ 
nold  himself  says,  “  I  believe  boys  may  be  governed  a  great 
deal  by  gentle  methods  and  kindness,  and  appealing  to  their 
better  feelings,  if  you  show  that  you  are  not  afraid  of  them. 
I  have  seen  great  boys,  six  feet  high,  shed  tears  when  I  have 
sent  for  them  up  into  my  room,  and  spoken  to  them  quietly 
in  private  for  not  knowing  their  lessons ;  and  I  have  found 
this  treatment  producing  its  effects  afterward  in  making 
them  better.  But,  of  course,  deeds  must  second  words  when 
needful,  or  words  will  soon  be  laughed  at.” 


96  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

as  Mr.  Curtis’s  and  the  gentlemen  (or  some  of 
them)  directors. 

We  have  before  us  a  document  written  by 
Mr.  Curtis  himself,  and  jDresented  to  the  Board 
of  Directors  at  his  final  resignation  of  his  office. 
It  is  a  valuable  exponent  of  his  views,  which 
it  gives  with  directness,  and  with  his  u  only  art, 
the  simple  truth.”  The  pragmatical  ignorance 
and  gross  injustice  he  had  to  contend  with  are, 
without  any  sign  of  irritation  or  resentment, 
made  manifest.  Throughout  the  controversy, 
his  dignity  was  maintained  without  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  modesty  or  meekness. 

The  contest  has  passed  away  and  is  forgot¬ 
ten  ;  the  actors  in  it  have  passed  away  too,  and 
now,  as  we  believe,  see  eye  to  eye ;  but  still 
the  document  is  interesting,  as  it  exhibits  the 
combined  firmness  and  gentleness  that  made 
Joseph  Curtis  a  model  character,  and  it  is  also 
of  permanent  importance,  as  it  elicits  and  reiter¬ 
ates  the  principles  and  rules  by  which  he  suc¬ 
cessfully  trained  and  absolutely  reformed  the 
most  difficult  of  young  subjects. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  KEFUGE. 


97 


It  is  not  necessary  to  insert  tire  whole  doc¬ 
ument,  as  it  is  in  some  measure  anticipated  in 
the  most  satisfactory  manner  by  the  details  in 
the  letters  we  have  given.  In  them  it  has  been 
seen  that  the  superintendent  had  few  laws,  that 
they  were  so  simply  expressed  that  a  child  of 
ten  years  could  perfectly  comprehend  them, 
and  that  to  these  laws  he  required  implicit,  un¬ 
swerving  obedience.  But  it  is  not  by  laws 
that  the  corrupted  can  be  reformed,  the  igno¬ 
rant  instructed,  the  degraded  raised.  u  Our  in¬ 
stitution,”  said  Mr.  Curtis,  a  can  not  be  man¬ 
aged  like  a  manufactory:  it  is  not  to  decide 
how  the  sick  shall  be  provided  for ;  it  is  not  to 
say  whether  the  subjects  shall  work  at  such  or 
such  kinds  of  work,  and  how  they  shall  be  fed 
and  clothed ;  but  it  is  to  decide  how  shall  the 
poor,  misguided,  and  neglected  youth  be  taught 
to  wash  his  face,  comb  his  hair,  tie  his  shoe,  sit 
erect,  keep  out  of  the  dirt,  learn  his  book,  bri¬ 
dle  his  tongue,  and  do  as  he  is  told.  These 
are  little  things,  it  is  true,  but,  small  as  they  are, 
they  require  a  wrork  that  no  man,  in  my  opin- 

G 


98  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ion,  can  give  a  theory  for;  nor,  till  he  has  an 
opportunity  (by  actual  observation)  to  see  the 
fruit  produced  by  a  particular  course,  either  ap¬ 
prove  or  condemn.  It  will  be  found  from  ex¬ 
perience  that  what  is  expedient  to-day  may  be 
inexpedient  to-morrow.  Many  things  may  be 
done  that  to  a  casual  observer  may  seem  inad¬ 
missible,  but  still,  rightly  managed,  are  product¬ 
ive  of  good.  To  decide  on  all  these  is  the  work 
of  the  superintendent.” 

Mr.  Curtis  professes  not  to  have  had  his  faith 
increased  in  the  ball  and  chain  and  whip  sys¬ 
tem  by  his  observation.  They  “  might  effect 
external  obedience,  but  wrought  no  change  of 
thought  or  habit.”  His  first  care  was  to  make 
the  child  feel  that  he  had  come  to  a  home,  not 
to  a  prison ;  that  it  depended  on  himself  wheth¬ 
er  he  should  stay  there  till  he  was  twenty-one, 
or  whether,  so  soon  as  there  was  a  good  prospect 
that  he  would  make  a  useful  and  respectable 
citizen,  he  should  be  sent  to  a  good  place. 
“With  one  exception,”  he  says,  “they  did  not 
at  first  believe  me.”  They  were  accustomed  to 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE.  99 

threats  rarely  executed,  and  to  promises  seldom 
fulfilled ;  and  thus  they  believed  Mr.  Curtis’s 
promises,  like  the  rest,  were  merely  bribes  to 
good  behavior.*  He  imputed  the  degradation 
of  the  children  to  the  neglect,  mismanagement, 
and  bad  examples  of  their  parents,  “more  es¬ 
pecially  the  mothers.”  If  they  could  be  thus 
degraded  by  mismanagement,  he  argued  they 
could  be  raised  by  right  training.  “His  first 
object,”  he  says,  “was  to  get  their  confidence 
by  reposing  confidence  in  their  professions,  and 
putting  them  upon  their  honor,  thereby  instill¬ 
ing  into  their  hearts  sensations  to  which  they 
were  strangers.  Kind  treatment  alone  can  pro¬ 
duce  these  sensations.” 

“It is  now  more  than  a  year,”  continues  Mr. 
Curtis,  “  since  we  have  been  under  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  keeping  a  day-guard  as  well  as  a  night- 

*  Our  readers  will  recall  the  declaration  in  one  of  the 
letters  of  the  Refuge  writers  :  “Mr.  Curtis  was  the  only 
man  who,  under  all  circumstances,  never  forgot  his  promise 
to  any  boy  or  girl,  to  my  knowledge,  and  I  had  a  good 


chance  to  know.” 


100  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

watcli.  The  advantage  of  this  in  saving  ex¬ 
pense  to  the  institution,  as  well  as  in  the  many 
moral  impressions  made  on  our  boys,  can  be  es¬ 
timated  by  all  who  have  witnessed  the  progress 
of  our  labors,  and  who  know  the  difficulties  in¬ 
volved  in  all  new  and  untried  undertakings. 

“  I  feel  an  assurance  in  saying  that,  so  far 
as  my  experience  has  gone,  and  so  far  as  my 
judgment  is  capable  of  suggesting,  this  liberty , 
this  confidence ,  this  respect  which  we  give  to 
the  honor  of  the  subjects,  is  the  key  to  open 
to  the  benighted  mind  a  light  which  shows 
the  path  to  manhood  and  respectability.  It  is 
not  enough  that  I  can  give  my  guard  the  keys 
of  the  gate,  trust  him  on  the  walls  to  guard 
others,  or  send  him  out  of  an  errand ;  no,  he 
has  a  pride — and  who  shall  say  it  is  not  laud¬ 
able?  in  knowing,  and  showing  to  his  mates 
and  relatives  that  he  can  be  trusted  to  go  to 
town  alone,  and  say  to  his  mother  in  language 
more  expressive  than  words,  ‘  I  am  a  good  boy, 
and  shall  become  a  respectable  man,  and  at 
some  future  day  I  am  in  hopes  to  repay  you 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE.  101 

for  the  distress  you  have  experienced  in  see¬ 
ing  your  son  arraigned  as  a  criminal  and  sen¬ 
tenced  to  the  penitentiary.’ 

“It  is  now  about  fourteen  months  since  I 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  giving  this  indulgence 
to  nine  of  my  boys,  to  visit  once  a  month  their 
friends  for  about  three  hours;  in  doing  this 
there  has  been  but  one  instance  of  overstaying 
the  time  allotted,  and  in  that  case  no  disrespect 
to  the  orders  was  intended.  About  three 
months  since  I  learned  from  the  acting  com¬ 
mittee  that  they  expected  the  rules  and  regu¬ 
lations  would  be  respected  by  me.  These  for¬ 
bade  any  boy  leaving  the  premises  without  per¬ 
mission  from  the  acting  committee.  From  that 
time  to  this  I  have  had  no  small  difficulty  in 
keeping  their  minds  at  ease  until  a  further  de¬ 
cision  could  be  had  by  a  reference  to  the  Board.” 

Mr.  Curtis  felt  that  this  trust  in  the  boys  was 
the  mainspring  of  his  work,  and  he  reiterates 
his  argument,  “  I  can  not  too  forcibly  call  their 
attention”  (that  of  the  Board)  u  to  the  consid¬ 
eration  of  this  subject,  for  on  that  much  de- 


102  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

pends.  I  know  the  minds  of  the  boys  on  this 
point,  and  it  is  not  different  from  what  our  own 
would  be  in  their  situation ;  this  warrants  me 
in  saying  that,  so  long  as  they  are  impressed 
with  the  idea  that  this  institution  is  a  prison, 
and  that  they  are  to  be  confined  until  they  are 
of  age  (if  they  learn  a  trade  here),  you  will  be 
disappointed  in  the  finishing  of  your  labors. 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  the  mind  of  a  human 
being  can  be  brought  to  that  quiet  and  pro¬ 
gressive  state  of  respect  for  himself  and  others 
while  the  body  is  suffering  punishment ;  of  this 
I  have  had  abundant  proof  in  the  many  cases 
of  imprisonment — the  ball  and  chain,  and  cor¬ 
poral  punishment  which  I  have  been  under 
the  necessity  of  inflicting.  Punishment  can  not 
create  that  state  of  feeling  which  elevates  the 
mind,  and  brings  into  operation  that  spirit 
which  Grod  has  given  to  man  alone.  ‘Where 
the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.’ 

“  And  the  only  method  to  bring  about  this 
happy  state  of  feeling  is  to  inculcate  the  idea 
that  kind  and  affectionate  feeling  will  always 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


108 


follow  good  behavior ;  that,  if  they  should  re¬ 
main  here  till  of  age,  it  is  more  from  their  own 
choice  than  otherwise ;  and  that  this  privilege 
of  visiting  their  friends  at  stated  periods  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  other  privileges,  will  be  ex¬ 
tended  to  them  so  soon  as  the  superintendent 
can  be  satisfied  from  their  improved  conduct 
that  they  are  worthy  of  confidence,  and  that 
these  favors  will  not  be  abused.” 

It  is  not  necessary,  and  therefore  would  now 
be  an  ungracious  task,  to  dwell  on  the  partic- 

V  , 

ulars  of  the  superintendent’s  controversy  with 
the  committee.  They  were,  for  the  most  part, 
men  of  routine  (a  term  unfortunately  well  un¬ 
derstood  at  the  present  time),  men  of  dogmas, 
of  theories,  of  cast-iron  systems;  they  might, 
as  Mr.  Curtis  hinted,  organize  a  manufactory, 
or  arrange  a  work-house ;  they  might,  perhaps, 
comprehend  the  bones  and  muscles  of  the  hu¬ 
man  frame,  but  they  could  never  understand 
its  susceptible  nerves  and  delicate  fibres ;  they 
might  beat  a  drum  or  blow  a  trumpet,  but 
they  could  not  restore  to  musical  harmonies  the 


104  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

finest  and  most  complicated  instrument  formed 
by  the  Creator’s  hand.  This  work  was  for  such 
a  man  as  Joseph  Curtis,  with  judgment  ripened 
by  acute  observation  and  experience,  learned 
in  the  dispositions  of  children,  and  learning 
every  day,  himself  ductile,  full  of  sympathy, 
and  overflowing  with  love,  and  gifted  by  Heav- 
en  with  that  authority  which  gave  to  all  his 
other  qualities  force  and  effect;  and,  with  all 
this  fitness,  looking,  as  he  modestly  asserts,  for 
the  aids  of  divine  grace. 

But  with  all  these  qualifications  there  was 
but  one  alternative  for  the  superintendent. 
He  must  submit  to  personal  injustice  from  the 
committee,  he  must  be  impeded  and  frustrated 
at  every  step  by  their  “rules  and  regulations,” 
he  must  sacrifice  his  parental  care  to  their 
stern,  old-fashioned,  inflexible,  mischievous  dis¬ 
cipline,  or — he  must  resign.  “  After  reviewing 
and  comparing  my  own  feelings,”  he  says, 
“  with  the  views  and  feelings  of  the  acting 
committee,  I  have  necessarily  come  to  the  de¬ 
termination  that  I  can  not,  in  justice  to  you  or 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REFUGE. 


105 


to  myself,  consent  to  be  any  longer  considered 
as  superintendent  of  this  institution.”  Accord¬ 
ingly,  on  tlie  5th  of  May,  1826,  his  connection 
as  superintendent  with  the  institution  was  dis¬ 
solved  ;  but  his  interest  in  it  never  ceased.  He 
harbored  no  petty  resentments ;  he  was  not  the 
less  interested  in  his  young  subjects  because 
their  progress  could  no  longer  reflect  glory  on 
himself. 

He  maintained  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  habit 
of  visiting  the  institution  and  talking  with  the 
children,  and  the  last  Sunday  afternoon  of  his 
life,  thirty  years  after  his  official  duties  were 
ended,  he  spent  there.  All  who  knew  him  in¬ 
timately  must  have  observed  his  frequent  recur¬ 
rence  to  “  the  Refuge,”  as  he  always  termed  it, 
and  the  tender  tone  of  voice  and  moistening  of 
his  eye  when  he  spoke  of  it.  It  was  as  the 
mother  speaks  of  her  little  dependents  in  the 
nursery.  One  of  his  last  requests  to  his  family 
was  that  his  portrait  might  be  hung  at  the 
“  Refuge,”  not  certainly  to  preserve  the  memo¬ 
rial  of  his  services,  but  probably  from  a  hope 


106  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

that  it  might  link  the  hearts  of  these  young 
people  to  him  whose  heart  had  been  so  bound 
to  them. 

We  can  not  close  this  instructive  chapter  of 
Joseph  Curtis’s  life  without  expressing  our  ear¬ 
nest  hope  that  it  may  impress  the  importance 
of  selecting  the  right  individuals  to  administer 
public  charities.  For  want  of  this,  they  either 
utterly  fail  or  do  but  half  the  good  they  might. 
No  endowment,  no  laws,  no  organization  can 
be  an  equivalent  for  this  requisite. 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  107 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES. 

“All  worldly  joy  to  him  was  less 
Than  the  one  joy  of  doing  kindness.” 

After  leaving  the  House  of  Refuge  in  1826, 
Mr.  Curtis  had  to  enter  upon  a  new  business. 
He  had  no  money  capital ;  but  mark  this,  my 
young  readers,  a  character  for  honesty,  indus¬ 
try,  and  ingenuity  is  a  more  certain  capital,  a 
capital  without  risk,  always  finding  some  busi¬ 
ness  to  enter  upon,  come  what  may,  crisis,  pan¬ 
ic,  or  adversity  of  any  kind.  With  this  capi¬ 
tal,  and  no  other,  he  was  admitted  as  an  equal 
partner  in  a  jewel  and  pencil-case  manufactory, 
then  a  large,  increasing,  and  very  profitable  es¬ 
tablishment.  On  entering  upon  this  lucrative 
business,  if  Mr.  Curtis  had  resembled  many 
men  in  our  city,  he  would  have  been  elated*  by 
his  sudden  increase  of  means  and  flattering 


108  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

prospects.  He  would  have  taken  a  “ genteel ” 
house,  furnished  it  “genteelly,”  dressed  his  wife 
and  children  “genteelly,”  indulged  himself  in 
an  occasional  bottle  of  Champagne  and  his  dai¬ 
ly  cigars,  and,  in  short,  run  into  that  purely 
selfish,  mean,  and  unproductive  life  too  com¬ 
mon,  alas !  in  our  great  city  of  New  York,  and 
which  indicates  a  very  low  grade  of  mental  and 
moral  education.  But  what  did  Mr.  Curtis  do  ? 
He  found  fourteen  apprentices  in  the  establish¬ 
ment  ;  their  number  was  afterward  augmented 
to  thirty.  His  first  consideration  was  for  them 
— his  first  consideration  was  always  for  young 
people ;  they  had  the  material  that  was  to  be 
moulded  and  formed,  and  by  training  them  he 
could  best  secure  their  happiness,  and  benefit 
his  country  by  preparing  for  it  good  citizens. 
He  was  a  true  patriot,  and  no  politician. 

He  found  these  apprentices,  some  of  them 
living  in  the  families  of  their  employers,  and 
others  boarding  in  cheap  lodging-houses.  He 
collected  them  all  in  a  house  adjoining  his  own 
home,  and  there  entered  upon  a  system  of  train- 


V 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  109 

ing  which  he  detailed  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  at 
that  friend’s  request,  who  vainly  hoped  the 
system  might  be  diffused. 

We  shall  transcribe  a  great  portion  of  the 
letter,  which  is  modestly  prefaced  with  a  con¬ 
fession  of  his  “  deficient  education.” 

After  their  first  breakfast  he  read  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  to  them,  and  then  told  them  that,  as  they 
were  henceforth  to  live  together,  they  should 
adopt  some  rule  of  life,  and  in  the  evening  they 
would  again  meet  to  consider  what  that  rule 
should  be. 

In  the  evening  he  began  by  stating  that 
great  truth  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our 
country’s  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  all 
men  are  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  then 
led  them  to  consider  what  would  most  surely 
promote  their  happiness  here  and  hereafter. 

4 

lie  told  them  the  secret  lay  in  a  few  words 
taught  by  Christ,  and  proven  by  all  observa¬ 
tion  and  experience:  “Do  unto  others  as  ye 
would  that  others  should  do  unto  you.”  He 
then  paraphrased  this  golden  rule,  and  made  it 


110  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

plain  to  tlie  boys  that,  as  eacb  one  loyecl  to 
have  bis  own  way  and  will,  it  was  best  to  come 
to  an  understanding  bow  eacb  should  best  se¬ 
cure  bis  own  rights,  and  prevent  the  infringe¬ 
ment  of  the  rights  of  others ;  that,  as  time  was 
their  most  precious  possession,  they  should  first 
agree  how  that  was  to  be  disposed  of. 

“  I  proposed,  therefore,”  writes  Mr.  Curtis, 
“  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  to  take 
the  subject  into  consideration,  and  report  at 
their  earliest  convenience.”  The  following  re¬ 
port  was  duly  presented : 

“Mr.  Curtis  is  our  executive.  Each  boy  is 
a  member  of  the  republic,  and  all  rules  and 
regulations,  and  the  execution  of  the  same,  shall 
be  made  and  adjudged  by  the  body. 

“The  hour  for  going  to  bed  shall  be  ten 
o’clock,  when  the  lights  shall  be  all  extin¬ 
guished.” 

(“  This,”  says  Mr.  Curtis,  “  I  did,  and  it  gave 
me  an  opportunity  to  observe  and  correct  what 
many  mothers  neglect,  the  maintenance  of  neat¬ 
ness  and  comfort  in  their  bed-rooms,  and  their 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  Ill 

perfect  ventilation.’ 7  One  of  liis  family  says, 
“My  father  never  omitted  going  every  night 
to  the  bed  of  each  apprentice.”  To  a  friend 
he  himself  said,  “  I  always  tucked  in  the  littlest 
fellows,  and  gave  them  a  good-night  kiss.”) 

We  proceed  with  the  articles  of  this  juvenile 
Constitution.  “Hot  a  word  is  to  be  spoken 
unless  addressed  to  the  foreman  of  the  room, 
who  is  chosen  by  the  inmates  of  the  room,  to 
hold  his  appointment  during  pleasure.  His 
duty  is  to  see  that  order,  decency,  and  decorum 
are  observed,  and  that  every  garment  is  kept 
in  its  place. 

“  On  Sabbath-days  each  member  must  at¬ 
tend  the  stated  meetings  of  the  church  his  pa¬ 
rents  shall  select,  unless  excused  by  the  execu¬ 
tive. 

“Monday,  Wednesday,  and  Thursday  even¬ 
ings  shall  be  devoted  to  English  studies ;  Tues¬ 
day  and  Friday  evenings  to  such  amusements 
as  shall  be  agreed  on  for  the  time ;  Saturday 
evening  to  gymnasium  exercises,  and  to  cleans¬ 
ing  the  body  with  soap  and  water. 


112  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


“Every  Monday  evening  a  chairman  must 
be  balloted  for  to  take  the  chair  of  the  execu¬ 
tive  during  his  absence. 

“No  member  can  attend  a  fire  without  the 
permission  of  the  executive. 

“  The  body  can  pardon  or  release  from  any 
punishment.” 


Thus  far  the  Constitution,  so  called.  It  was 
not  very  formally  drafted,  the  boys  not  being 
much  more  fit  for  that  nice  work  than  the  au¬ 
dacious  politicians  of  the  French  Revolution, 
who  would  make  a  Constitution  one  day  and 
abolish  it  the  next. 

It  was  drafted  by  the  boys,  but,  as  there 
gleams  through  it  the  wisdom  of  more  expe¬ 
rience  than  theirs,  they  were  probably  docile 
to  their  teacher’s  suggestions. 

The  value  of  time,  the  necessity  of  order,  de¬ 
cency,  decorum,  and  cleanliness,  are  made  prom¬ 
inent.  If  we  had  then  enjoyed  the  facilities  of 
the  Croton  water,  Mr.  Curtis  would  have  re- 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  118 

quired  a  daily  bath.  Gymnastic  exercises  were 
then  but  just  introduced  into  a  few  of  our 
highest  schools,  and  this  vigilant  man,  always 
on  the  watch-tower,  always  looking  out  for  ev¬ 
ery  kind  of  education  in  the  life-school,  pro¬ 
vided  gymnastics  for  these  boys  at  a  sedentary 
trade. 

Regular  attendance  at  church  was  required. 
Mr.  Curtis  was  neither  bigot  nor  sectarian.  His 
religion  was  not  something  apart  from  his 
week-day  life;  it  did  not  consist  in  “long 
prayers”  and  solemn  faces,  and  “bowing  the 
head  down  like  a  bulrush.”  It  was  the  relig¬ 
ion  of  a  cheerful,  loving  spirit;  the  religion 
that  “honors  all  men,”  that  looseth  the  bands 
of  the  wicked,  that  “  undoeth  heavy  burdens ;” 
the  religion  from  which  “  the  light  breaks  forth 
as  the  morning.”  He  reverenced  God,  the 
Father  of  all;  he  reverenced  His  Word,  and 
he  reverenced  His  day  of  rest.  He  did  not 
give  in  to  the  notion  of  making  it  a  day  of 
mere  amusement.  He  wished  his  boys  to  make 
it  a  day  of  worship,  of  peace,  of  holy  medita- 

II 


114  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

tion,  of  charitable  deeds,  and  of  cheerful  social 
enjoyment  among  dear  friends. 

Mr.  Curtis  had  a  horror  of  the  tendency  to 
rowdyism  among  some  of  our  boys,  and  from 
that  came  the  prohibition  to  attend  fires. 

The  working  of  this  little  in-door  republic  is 
better  shown  in  what  Mr.  Curtis  called  “  Prac¬ 
tice ”  than  in  this  informal  instrument  qf  a  Con¬ 
stitution. 

OUR  PRACTICE. 

u  Breakfast  at  seven  o’clock,  dinner  at  one, 
supper  at  seven  o’clock  the  year  round :  do  not 
work  after  seven  o’clock.  After  breakfast  read 
a  portion  of  Scripture.  After  dinner  select 
reading  for  about  ten  minutes;  then  from  fif¬ 
teen  to  thirty  minutes  were  occupied  by  com¬ 
munications  from  the  chair,  or  each  one  read¬ 
ing  his  library -book  from  the  1  Mechanics’  So¬ 
ciety  Library.’  These,  for  convenience,  were 
placed  on  a  shelf  under  the  table.  Reading 
was  permitted  during  the  carving;  each  wait¬ 
ed  till  all  were  served.”  By  these  regulations 
Mr.  Curtis  meant  to  secure  quiet  and  good 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  115 

manners  at  table,  and  to  avoid  the  hurry  and 
rush  from  eating  to  work  so  prevalent  in  our 
working  nation,  so  fatal  to  health  and  to  good 
manners,  and  so  unfavorable  to  the  innocent 
and  refining  pleasures  of  our  social  existence. 

After  tea  the  little  republic  was  resolved  into 
a  court  of  inquiry  and  trial.  “  The  chair  asks 
if  there  is  any  business.  This  question  em¬ 
braces  all  that  relates  to  our  moral  walk,  all 
social  offenses,  such  as  nicknaming,  teasing, 
twitting,  provoking,  ridiculing,  etc.,  up  to  those 
of  striking,  swearing,  lying,  stealing,  etc.  The 
charge  is  made,  the  accused  rises  and  names 
five  jurors.  The  facts  are  stated,  and,  if  re¬ 
quired,  proven;  the  pleadings  are  had;  the 
charge  is  given  from  the  chair,  and  the  offense 
commented  on;  the  jurors  retire,  elect  their 
foreman,  who,  when  they  have  agreed  (which 
is  not  always  till  our  next  sitting),  reports  the 
verdict.  The  adjudged  has  the  right  of  an  ap¬ 
peal  to  the  body,  or  a  rehearing  by  the  same 
jurors.  Their  verdicts  are  usually,  for  the  first 
offense,  a  reprimand  from  the  chair;  for  the 


116  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

second,  some  light  deprivation  of  their  pleas¬ 
ures,  such  as  not  eating  at  the  table,  exclusion 
from  the  dining-room,  and  being  condemned  to 
eat  their  meals  at  their  work-bench  and  go 
thence  to  bed,  to  confinement  within  the  prem¬ 
ises,  and  to  be  shut  up  in  Coventry,*  and,  last 
and  worst,  an  expulsion  from  the  body,  and 
restraint  to  the  sole  control  of  the  executive. 
The  offender  can  only  be  restored  by  a  vote  of 
two  thirds  of  the  body.  New-comers  some¬ 
times  proving  intractable,  the  jurors,  after  sev¬ 
eral  trials,  have  recommended  ‘that  they  be 
returned  to  their  parents.’  ” 

Mr.  Curtis  proceeds  to  state  the  operation  of 
his  system.  He  found  there  was  no  difficulty 
in  saving  an  hour  every  day  from  work  for 
mental  improvement,  nor  in  quickening  the  ob¬ 
servation  of  his  boys,  and  rousing  their  curios¬ 
ity  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  things  be¬ 
fore  their  eyes.  He  pursued  a  course  not  un¬ 
common  with  intelligent  parents,  and  turned 

*  A  punishment  which  excludes  the  culprit  from  all 
companionship  and  conversation. 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  117 

the  meal-times,  -which,  with  the  lower  animals 
only,  should  be  mere  feeding-time,  into  seasons 
of  pleasant  instruction.  The  boys  were  set  to 
inquire  into  the  composition  of  their  bread  and 
butter,  the  history  of  the  potato,  etc.  Such  as 
could  write  (many  could  not  when  they  first 
came  to  the  establishment)  were  to  state  the 
result  of  their  inquiries.  These  extended  to 
every  country  and  clime,  and  to  their  history 
in  past  ages.  The  boys  ascertained  the  use  and 
relative  value  of  vegetables,  the  relative  con¬ 
dition  of  different  countries  producing  them; 
they  learned  the  processes  of  preparation  from 
the  cooking  of  potatoes  to  the  making  of  mo¬ 
lasses  and  sugar.  Well  instructed  in  their  na¬ 
ture  and  effects,  no  difficulty  was  found,  Mr. 
Curtis  says,  in  inducing  his  boys  to  reject  un¬ 
ripe  fruit.  They  discriminated  between  whole¬ 
some  and  unwholesome  vegetables,  would  re¬ 
joice  in  cole-slaw  (cabbage-salad),  and  reject 
the  indigestible  boiled  cabbage.  That  knowl¬ 
edge  is  power  is  a  common  maxim ;  knowledge 
was  health  in  this  case,  for  Mr.  Curtis  says 


118  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

“the  health,  of  our  boys  was  much  promoted 
by  these  inquiries.  During  the  epidemics  that 
have  visited  the  city,  we  have  enjoyed  a  state 
of  health  that  not  only  called  forth  the  admi¬ 
ration  of  the  physicians,  but  the  comments  of 
our  neighbors.  Not  a  death  nor  an  indispo¬ 
sition  of  three  days  occurred  in  our  family. 
W e  had  but  one  case  of  cholera,  and  that  yield¬ 
ed  easily.  I  can  not  admit  that  any  of  my  fam¬ 
ily  became  temperate  in  eating  or  select  in 
their  food  but  under  a  full  conviction  that  both 
tended  to  the  promotion  of  health. 

“From  vegetable  our  boys  proceeded  to  an 
investigation  of  animal  food.”  And  here  Mr. 
Curtis  wisely  remarks  that,  though  an  honest 
observation  shows  that  animal  food  is  not  in¬ 
dispensable  to  sedentary  persons,  yet,  as  wise 
men  have  understood  these  matters  better  than 
we  (and  wise  men  eat  meat),  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  depart  from  their  usages. 

He  says  he  was  not  a  little  amused  with  the 
confused  notions  of  the  boys  in  the  beginning, 
some  putting  the  horse  at  the  head  of  the  ani- 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  119 


mals,  others  the  hen,  some  being  champions  for 
the  goose,  and  many  for  the  dog.  But  it  ap¬ 
pears  they  did  not  go  very  far  in  their  investi¬ 
gations  without  coming  to  a  juster  classification. 
.  If  the  boys  had  commanded  the  ark,  they  would 
have  rejected  the  Salique  law,  and  have  made 
the  cow  the  queen  of  the  kingdom  within  it. 
“  They  found,  in  pursuing  their  inquiries,”  says 
Mr.  Curtis,  “  how  much  that  animal  contributes 
to  our  comfort  and  convenience.  Many  of  our 
city  children  are  reared  to  manhood,  and 
thought  to  be  learned,  and  yet  do  not  know 
what  our  boys  were  now  informed  of,  viz.,  how 
butter  and  cheese  are  made.  They  were  in¬ 
structed  in  the  art  and  mystery  of  the  tanner, 
the  currier,  the  dyer,  the  comb,  the  button, 
and  the  glove  maker.  They  heard  for  the  first 
time  a  fact,  of  which  I  have  known  English 
gold-beaters,  that  had  worked  ten  years  at  their 
trade,  to  be  ignorant,  viz.,  that  the  gold-beater’s 
skin  was  from  the  cow,  and  that  the  gold  leaf 
so  much  used  could  not  be  made  without  it.” 
Mr.  Curtis  goes  on  to  detail  their  studies  in  the 


120  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

animal  kingdom,  and  how  their  knowledge  of 
the  beneficent  uses  of  animals  led  his  boys  to 
the  conclusion  that  “  nothing  was  made  in  vain, 
and  that,  though  they  could  not  perhaps  see 
the  utility  of  the  crow,  the  kingfisher,  the  rat, 
musquito,  flea,  etc.,  they  inferred  it  from  what 
they  did  know ;  and  they  learned  to  look  rev¬ 
erently  upon  the  meanest  of  God’s  creatures, 
and  never  wantonly  to  kill  or  torment  them.” 

From  animals  he  directed  their  attention  to 
metals.  They  were  workmen  in  gold  and  sil¬ 
ver,  and  it  was  easy  to  awaken  their  curiosity 
about  them.  They  began  with  the  mining; 
went  through  all  the  subtle  processes  of  prep¬ 
aration  of  the  ore,  and  the  manufacture  of  tools. 
Thence  they  proceeded  to  chemistry,  the  laws 
of  heat,  the  nature  of  alkalies,  salts,  and  all  the 
various  agencies  involved  in  their  trade. 

They  were  soon  made  to  realize  the  necessi¬ 
ty  of  a  good  English  education,  and  readily  ap¬ 
plied  themselves  to  learning  reading,  spelling, 
writing,  and  arithmetic.  In  these  branches  Mr. 
Curtis  was  himself  their  teacher,  and  “their 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  121 


proficiency,”  lie  says,  “was  as  great  as  if  they 
had  paid  twenty  or  thirty  dollars  a  quarter.” 
For  higher  branches  teachers  were  employed 
and  paid  by  the  firm.  Drawing  was  included 
among  these.  Latin  and  French  some  learned, 
says  Mr.  Curtis,  but  “outside  the  establish¬ 
ment,”  from  which  we  infer  that  such  of  the 
lads  as  pursued  these  studies  (rather  rare  among 
mechanics’  apprentices)  themselves  paid  their 
teachers.  “Instruction  in  the  nature  of  the 
government  of  the  country  and  its  laws  was 
not  neglected.  They  attended  courses  of  lec¬ 
tures  on  the  sciences,  and  had  season  tickets  to 
Peale’s  Museum.”  They  were  paid  for  by  the 
liberal  firm,  and,  we  presume,  were  included 
among  the  “limited  amusements”  of  which,  as 
Mr.  Curtis  states,  the  firm  defrayed  the  ex¬ 
pense. 

At  the  end  of  these  details  of  his  enlighten¬ 
ed  and  benevolent  labor,  Mr.  Curtis  says,  with 
a  modesty  to  be  admired,  “Perhaps  I  have  fa¬ 
tigued  you  with  what  was  but  a  common-sense 
practice,  and  you  may  rather  hear  how  these 


122  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

lads  got  on  with  their  trade.  Each  boy  had  a 
book  in  the  shop  in  which  he  entered  his  day’s 
work,  and  extended  its  value  as  soon  as  he 
could  to  the  established  price,  one  dollar  and  a 
half  per  day ;  then,  at  his  own  election,  he  be¬ 
gan  task-work,  and  all  that  he  could  earn  over 
that  sum  was  passed  to  his  credit.  It  was  not 
unusual,  before  the  first  year  expired,  for  him 
to  earn  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  cents  excess 
each  day,  and  before  he  was  of  age  from  fifty 
cents  to  one  dollar  each  day.  Many,  when  of 
age,  had,  either  in  the  Bank  of  Savings  or  in 
our  hands,  from  three  hundred  to  six  hundred 
dollars,  and  that  after  paying  each  our  charge 
of  fifty  dollars — our  terms,  including  a  supply 
of  their  wants  (board  and  clothing),  amounting 
to  that  sum.  Some  among  them,  either  from 
laziness  or  want  of  mechanical  talent,  ended 
in  our  debt.” 

It  appears  that  the  superior  intellectual  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  apprentices  did  not  interfere  with 
their  progress  in  their  trade.  Mr.  Curtis  says, 
“We  think  some  of  our  boys  have  shown 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  123 

themselves  superior  to  any  in  this  country. 
More  than  one  has  done  work  in  watch-cases 
and  dials  that  has  not  been  equaled  in  En¬ 
gland. 

“  The  advantages  of  our  boys  for  variety  of 
work  have  been  greater  than  in  any  other  shop 
in  the  city.  Colored  men  were  employed  for 
cleaning  the  shop  and  for  the  dirty  work  usual¬ 
ly  done  by  the  youngest  boys,  so  that  they 
went  at  once  to  their  craft.  It  was  the  study 
of  their  employers  to  elicit  their  thinking  fac¬ 
ulties,  and  if  any  one  suggested  an  improve¬ 
ment  in  a  tool  to  facilitate  his  work,  he  was  al¬ 
lowed  the  benefit  of  it.  This  practice  led  the 
boy,  if  he  had  a  genius  for  invention,  to  discov¬ 
er  it.  Some  became  tool-makers  of  masterly 
workmanship,  and  executors  of  work  that  in 
Europe  embraces  six  or  eight  distinct  branches.” 
Mr.  Curtis  expresses  his  conviction  that  the  re¬ 
ceived  opinion  that  it  takes  six  or  seven  years 
to  perfect  a  workman  is  erroneous.  “If,”  he 
says,  “the  boy  is  made  a  reflecting  being,  and 
proper  encouragement  is  given  to  him  to  as- 


124  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

certain  what  talent  he  may  possess,  he  may 
learn  in  the  working  of  wood  and  metal  all  he 
is  capable  of  in  one  year.” 

Mr.  Curtis’s  opinion  on  this  subject  is  enti¬ 
tled  to  our  respect.  He  was  not  a  “ fast ”  man. 
No  man  ever  better  loved  completeness  and 
finish. 

Mr.  Curtis  maintains  that  development  of 
talent  and  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  not 
tariffs  and  legislative  enactments,  are  necessary 
to  make  us,  through  our  manufacturers,  inde¬ 
pendent  of  England.  “Let,”  he  says,  “our 
mechanical  arts  be  as  free  as  our  agriculture, 
and  they  will  be  found  to  stand  upon  a  founda¬ 
tion  that  England  (nor  Europe)  can  not  attain 
until  she  changes  her  mode  of  treating  her  ap¬ 
prentices.  They  are  taught  to  do  as  they  are 
told,  and  not  taught  to  think,  and  in  this  way 
are  made  to  serve  capitalists.  The  great  doc¬ 
trine  of  division  of  labor,  which  makes  a  pin, 
in  its  formation,  pass  through  five  or  six  hands, 
will  forever  hold  the  operator  in  servitude.” 

Mr.  Curtis  appeals  to  the  fact:  “Till  within 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  125 


five  or  six  years,”  he  says  (we  believe  his  let¬ 
ter,  which  bears  no  date,  was  written  about 
1835),  “it  was  believed  that  no  American 
workman  could  make  a  watch-case  or  dial. 
About  five  years  since  we  selected  two  of  our 
boys  and  began  case-making.  None  of  us  had 
ever  made  one  or  seen  one  made.  Before  two 
years  expired  one  of  the  boys  was  out  of  his 
time,  and  during  the  six  months  thereafter  he 
earned  by  piece-work  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars.  The  other,  whose  field  was  more  ex¬ 
tended,  executed,  before  two  years  expired,  the 
variety  of  work  in  watch-cases  which,  in  En¬ 
gland,  required  nine  different  workmen,  each 
of  whom  must  have  served  his  regular  appren¬ 
ticeship,  and  could  not  do  a  stroke  of  work  be¬ 
yond  that  which  he  had  been  taught.  His 
work  was  as  well  made  as  any  done  in  En¬ 
gland.  As  soon  as  he  was  out  of  his  time  we 
offered  him  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year.  He 
declined  our  offer,  and  began  business,  having 
no  capital  but  his  trade,  his  character,  and  four 
hundred  dollars.  He  has  been  two  years  in 


126  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

business,  is  making  money,  and  his  work  takes 
precedence  of  English  work. 

“We  gave  six  dollars  a  day  to  the  other 
boy.  He  is  now  our  successor  in  this  branch ; 
has  apprentices,  who,  after  serving  a  year,  are 
working  with  him  at  journeymen’s  wages  from 
two  to  three  dollars  per  day.  There  are  simi¬ 
lar  facts  in  relation  to  the  pencil-making  busi¬ 
ness.  "VYe  could  have  sent  them  to  England 
and  received  a  good  profit  any  time  these  five 
years  but  for  this  high  tariff.  This  is  not  true 
of  our  business  only.  I  know  no  manufacture 
yet  attempted  in  this  country  at  which  we  can 
not  work  cheaper  and  better  than  they,  unless 
they  have  an  advantage  in  the  raw  material 
and  in  coal. 

“One  word,”  Mr.  Curtis  says  in  conclusion, 
“as  to  the  acquirements  made  by  my  boys  in 
their  schooling.  They  were  all  fair  writers; 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  figures  for  our  busi¬ 
ness  ;  most  of  them  understood  book-keeping, 
and  all  had  some  knowledge  of  geography  and 
history.  Some  among  them  understood  the 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  127 


Latin  and  French  grammar,  and  one  (who  could 
earn  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  dollars  per 
day)  wrote  well.  Many  of  his  pieces  appeared 
in  the  Mirror  and  other  periodicals.  His  taste, 
unhappily,  was  for  writing  plays,  some  of  which 
our  boys  represented  for  their  amusement  be¬ 
fore  their  friends  on  our  premises.  I  found  it 
expedient  to  tolerate  amusements  that  I  could 
have  wished  to  dispense  with;  but  we  were 
obliged  to  make  our  own  society,  as  no  visit¬ 
ing,  except  on  special  occasions,  was  permitted, 
unless  with  their  parents.” 

W e  have  heard  Mr.  Curtis  give  a  notable  in¬ 
stance  of  the  benefit  he  derived  from  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  dramatic  taste  among  his  boys — a 
taste  so  deeply  implanted  in  nature  that  a  wise 
man,  seeing  it  is  bootless  to  attempt  to  eradi¬ 
cate  it,  should  study  to  give  it  a  right  direction. 
This  dramatic  tendency  is  like  some  plants ;  if 
left  to  prurient  growth,  they  overrun  and  out- 
root  less  beautiful  but  more  nutritious  plants, 
and  themselves  run  to  useless  excess,  and,  in¬ 
stead  of  blossoming  in  sweet  odorous  flowers, 


128  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

throw  out  poisonous  abortions.  God  set  all  the 
plants  in  the  garden,  but  he  set  man  to  tend 
them ;  so  he  gave  universally  the  love  of  dra¬ 
matic  entertainment.  Man  has  perverted  it 
from  use  to  abuse.  In  1831,  when  for  the  first 
time  the  cholera  visited  New  York,  there  was 
a  general  panic.  The  workshops  were,  for  the 
most  part,  abandoned,  and  much  confusion  and 
distress  ensued.  It  was  then  disputed  whether 
the  disease  was  contagious.  Mr.  Curtis  believed 
that  it  was  not,  and  that  the  disease  might  be 
averted  by  scrupulous  temperance,  neatness, 
and  ventilation,  if  the  courage  and  cheerfulness 
of  the  boys  were  sustained.  He  consulted  their 
parents  and  his  partners,  and  the  result  was 
that  their  workshop  was  kept  open.  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis’s  wife  and  children  of  course  remained  in 
the  city.  The  children  of  others  were  not  to 
be  exposed  to  a  danger  he  feared  for  his  own. 
The  boys  had  no  recreation  out  of  doors,  and 
their  several  talents  were  taxed  for  amuse¬ 
ment.  The  playwright  wrote  a  play ;  the  lads 
that  had  a  taste  for  painting  painted  the  scenes ; 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  129 

those  skilled  in  mechanics  arranged  them ;  they 
all  were,  for  the  nonce,  players,  and  a  play  was 
got  up  that,  if  not  quite  as  diverting  as  the  Py- 
ramus  and  Thisbe  of  Bottom  the  Weaver, 
served  the  excellent  purpose  of  keeping  the 
bright  spirit  of  health  among  them.  The  work 
by  day,  and  the  little  home-theatre  at  evening, 
kept  off  the  demon.  There  was  but  one  case 
of  cholera,  and  that  yielded  at  once.  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis’s  experiment  was  completely  successful,  and 
should  have  been  published  from  one  end  of 
the  land  to  the  other ;  but  he  was  a  man  of 
deeds,  not  words,  and  so  at  the  distance  of 
twenty-six  years  a  fact  is  first  recorded  that  de¬ 
serves  a  place  in  every  journal  of  health.  We 
hope  it  may  make  some  impression  on  our 
dear  schoolboy  and  schoolgirl  readers.  For 
them  it  was  that  Mr.  Curtis  lighted  his  candle 
— that  is,  to  them  he  mainly  devoted  his  tal¬ 
ents — and  it  is  for  them  that  we  chiefly  hope 
to  preserve  the  light  of  his  example.  They 

see  how  he  baffled  that  most  frightful  disease, 

/ 

the  cholera.  Diseases  will  come ;  they  will  pre- 

m 

T 


130  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

vail  in  our  cities,  and  they  will  find  tlieir  food 
and  ministers  in  filthy  dens,  in  cellars,  and  gar¬ 
rets,  and  among  people  whose  blood  is  corrupt¬ 
ed  with  bad  food  and  strong  drink.  But  God 
helps  those  who  help  themselves.  Let  those 
sprightly  spirits,  Activity  and  Cheerfulness,  go 
with  you  to  your  work;  and  those  smiling 
ones,  Temperance,  and  Cleanliness,  and  Family 
Kindness,  dwell  in  your  homes;  and,  depend 
on  it,  when  the  Destroyer  comes,  he  will  pass 
over  you,  seeing  a  mark  upon  your  habitations 
as  plain  as  that  upon  “the  door-posts  and  lin¬ 
tels”  of  the  Israelites. 

We  would  rather  Mr.  Curtis’s  merits  should 
be  told  by  the  beautiful  facts  of  his  life  than 
by  any  encomiums  of  ours;  but  we  must  en¬ 
treat  our  readers  to  pause  upon  this  work  of 
his  for  his  apprentices.  There  may  be  others 
who  have  done  likewise,  and  who  have  never 
been  heard  of,  because  their  work  was  as  noise¬ 
less  as  his.  What  would  New  York  now  be — 
to  what  a  high  mark  in  man’s  moral  progress 
our  country  might  now  have  risen,  if  there 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  181 

were  many  other  mechanics  fathers  and  bene¬ 
factors  to  their  apprentices,  as  Mr.  Curtis  was ; 
if  the  masters  were  so  to  their  slaves;  if  the 
manufacturer,  in  his  great  field  of  labor,  spared 
some  of  his  zeal  and  vigilance  from  the  money- 
profits,  and  gave  it  to  the  perdurable  profits  in 
human  improvement;  if  even  fathers  were  to 
their  children  what  Joseph  Curtis  was  to  his 
apprentices!  Truly  God  is  patient  with  his 
creatures ! 

But  this  beautiful  work  was  destined  to  an 
untimely  end,  and  by  the  baleful  influence  of 
that  ever-recurring  vice  of  our  “fast”  people, 
the  making  haste  to  be  rich. 

This  is  the  vice  of  our  country,  the  mania  of 
our  city.  Mr.  Curtis’s  partners  had  caught  it. 
His  sound  mind  resisted  the  contagion.  The 
fancy  speculation  of  that  time  sprang  from  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  Virginia  and  North  Caro¬ 
lina.  Mr.  Curtis’s  partners  were  eager  to  em¬ 
bark  in  it.  He,  with  characteristic  moderation, 
remonstrated,  repeating  the  old  adage,  “  Shoe¬ 
makers,  stick  to  your  last.”  “We  are  rich,”  he 


132  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

said,  “making  more  money  than  we  or  our 
families  shall  ever  need :  let  well  enough 
alone.”  They  insisted,  and  he,  being  a  junior 
partner,  was  obliged  to  yield.  The  conse¬ 
quence  was  failure  of  the  concern. 

Mr.  Curtis  made  a  settlement  of  their  affairs 
through  multiplied  and  perplexing  difficulties. 
All  the  debts,  excepting  those  of  the  gold 
mines,  were  paid  by  him  as  financier  of  the 
concern,  and  he  came  out  of  these  pecuniary 
embarrassments  as  few  men  do,  with  untar¬ 
nished  honor,  and  a  spotless  good  name. 

There  are  many  kind-hearted  but  weak  peo¬ 
ple  in  the  world,  who  make  themselves  very 
busy  in  supplying  the  wants  of  the  poor,  but 
do  not  reflect  how  much  better  it  is  to  teach 
the  poor  how  to  supply  their  own  wants.  Mr. 
Curtis’s  object  was  to  secure  to  the  lads  in  his 
charge  the  power  of  independence  and  progress, 
and  the  ability  to  help  others.  His  first  duty, 
for  they  were  apprenticed  to  him  for  a  trade, 
was  to  teach  them  that  trade,  and  that  it  ap¬ 
pears  he  did  completely.  He  was  himself  an 


SCHOOL  FOB  APPRENTICES.  133 


ingenious  and  finished  mechanic.  He  rejoiced 
in  good  work  faithfully  done.  He  meant  to 
have  his  apprentices  not  only  up  to  the  mark, 
but  to  excel  other  workmen.  To  accomplish 
this,  he  well  knew  they  must  not  be  themselves 
mere  machines,  but  thinking  beings ;  so  he  in¬ 
formed  and  stimulated  their  minds.  Hor  did 
he  mean  to  make  them  merely  first-rate  me¬ 
chanics,  but,  extending  their  instruction  far  be¬ 
yond  the  bounds  of  the  workshop,  he  turned 
out  intelligent  men,  quite  fit  to  be  agreeable 
companions  (perchance  often  instructors)  to 
men  who  are  brought  up  in  colleges,  and  law, 
medical,  and  theological  schools. 

The  best  part  of  his  training,  the  most  deli¬ 
cate  and  difficult,  that  on  which  he  was  most 
intent,  in  which  he  never  wearied,  morning, 
noon,  or  night,  he  was  too  modest  to  set  down 
in  the  communication  to  his  friend  from  which 
we  have  quoted.  He  labored  to  make  his  boys 
good  mechanics  and  intelligent  men :  this  was 
necessary  to  their  success  and  good  standing  in 
life ;  but  he  desired  much  more  to  make  them 


134  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

good  Christian  men,  for  this  he  felt  to  be  essen¬ 
tial  beyond  this  short  and  uncertain  life;  so 
he  cultivated  their  good  affections,  he  watched 
against  their  selfish  propensities,  he  tried  to  put 
in  them  the  generous  feeling  that  should  make 
them  refuse  any  seeming  good  to  themselves 
that  must  involve  others  in  loss.  He  never 
wearied  his  boys  with  what  boys  very  soon 
weary  of,  and  call,  because  it  does  weary  them, 
preaching;  but  his  daily  life  spoke  to  their 
hearts,  and  it  flowered  out  from  that  text, 
“Heal  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly 
with  your  God.” 

Manners  were  a  great  point  with  Mr.  Curtis. 
He  regarded  them  as  the  expression  and  dem¬ 
onstration  of  the  social  virtues.  He  certain¬ 
ly  was  not  a  polished  man,  but  he  never  offend¬ 
ed  against  any  essential  of  good  manners.  Can 
one  imagine  a  good  Christian  without  these  es¬ 
sentials — modesty,  gentleness,  reverence,  un¬ 
selfishness  ?  These  Christian  virtues  strike  the 
root  of  good  manners. 

When  Mr.  Curtis’s  connection  with  his  ap- 


SCHOOL  FOR  APPRENTICES.  135 

prentices  was  dissolved,  “it  was,”  says  Miss 
Curtis,  “  a  grievous  time  to  my  father.  Even 
to  this  day  we  hear  those  who  were  his  ap¬ 
prentices  say,  ‘Those  days  in  the  “corner 
house”  were  the  happiest  of  our  lives.’  ” 


136  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK. 

“  Oh  that  I  were  an  orange-tree, 

That  busie  plant ! 

Then  should  I  ever  laden  be, 

And  never  want 

Some  fruit  for  him  that  dressed  me.” 

As  Hugh.  Miller  has  aptly  entitled  his  auto¬ 
biography  “My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters,”  so 
might  this  true  story  of  Joseph  Curtis’s  life  be 
divided  into  periods  of  beneficence,  and  called 
his  Harvest-fields  and  Harvests.  The  broadest 
and  richest  of  these  was  in  the  Public  Schools. 

Teaching,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion 
to  quote  from  Mr.  Curtis  himself,  was  his  vo¬ 
cation — his  vocation,  we  believe,  in  the  strict 
catholic  sense.  The  divine  call  was  in  his  fit¬ 
ness  for  the  work.  He  began,  as  has  been  told, 
in  the  early  days  of  his  married  life,  with  the 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  187 

instruction  of  a  class  of  young  men  in  tlie  even¬ 
ings  at  his  own  house ;  then  followed  his  care 
of  the  schools  of  the  Manumission  Society; 
then  his  sacred  office  at  the  House  of  Refuge  ; 
then  his  beautiful  school  for  his  apprentices ; 
and,  finally,  his  indefatigable  and  unparalleled 
work  for  the  Public  Schools,  of  which  we  are 
now  to  give  some  particulars.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  Public  School  Society  in  1839, 
and  continued  his  membership  till  1853,  the 
epoch  of  its  dissolution,  or,  rather,  the  epoch 
when  the  Public  Schools  and  the  Ward  Schools 
were  amalgamated.  He  then  went  into  the 
Board  of  Education  as  one  of  its  fifteen  com¬ 
missioners,  and  11  worked  diligently,”  says 
Greorge  Trimble,  his  honored  associate,  “till 
his  term  expired.” 

Some  of  our  young  friends  still  in  the  Pub¬ 
lic  Schools  must  remember  him — a  man  about 
five  feet  eight  inches  in  height ;  not  too  high 
to  stoop  to  all  their  little  wants.  A  very  mod¬ 
est,  quiet-looking  old  gentleman  he  was,  so 
neat  and  simple  in  his  apparel  that  one  might 


138  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

liave  mistaken  him  for  a  member  of  tbe  Socie¬ 
ty  of  Friends ;  but  be  was  tbe  friend  of  all  hu¬ 
manity,  restricted  to  no  society.  Tbe  children’s 
loving  memory  will  recall  bis  large,  soft,  dark 
gray  eye ;  bis  dark  hair,  silvered  by  time,  and 
curling  round  bis  temples  and  neck ;  bis  smile, 
that  was  like  sunshine  to  them,  all  combining 
to  give  him  an  expression  of  benignity  that 
made  them  look  up  to  him  with  love  more 
than  fear,  even  when  be  rebuked  them;  and 
sure  were  they,  when  be  walked  with  noiseless 
steps  up  and  down  tbe  long  school-room,  and 
in  and  out  among  tbe  benches,  that  no  misde¬ 
meanor  would  escape  that  watchful  gray  eye, 
no  slovenly  habit  with  pen  or  sponge,  no  dirty 
face,  soiled  bands,  dirty  nails,  unbrushed  hair, 
or  even  unbrusbed  shoes,  would  pass  unnoticed. 
A  boy  soiling  tbe  upper  leather  of  one  shoe 
with  tbe  sole  of  another,  or  lounging  over  bis 
desk,  or  a  girl  stooping  over  her  task,  never  es¬ 
caped  bis  rebuking  but  gentle  tap.  He  would 
stop  to  right  an  awry  collar,  or  to  adjust  a  little 
girl’s  apron  slovenly  put  on,  giving  her,  at  tbe 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  139 

same  time,  some  pithy  maxim,  expressing  the 
value  of  neatness  and  order,  and  with  it  such  a 
loving  pat  on  her  cheek  as  would  make  it  dim¬ 
ple  with  a  smile ;  and  so,  as  sunshine  causes 
the  plants  to  grow,  his  love  made  the  counsel 
thrive.  The  dreadful  solemnity  of  his  dis¬ 
pleasure  at  any  violence,  or  vulgarity,  or  false¬ 
hood  these  children  can  never  forget ;  nor  how 
difficult  it  was  to  hide  vice  or  foible  from  his 
eye.  His  right  of  guardianship  was  demon- 
strated  to  them  in  modes  that  left  them  no  de¬ 
sire  to  question  it.  How  many  acts  of  parental 
care  are  remembered  by  the  successive  genera¬ 
tions  that  have  passed  under  his  supervision ! 
Mothers  who  now  know  what  it  is  to  watch 
over  helpless  little  children,  recount  that  when 
they  were  such,  and  belonged  to  the  Primary 
School  in  Crosby  Street,  there  was  a  cold  day, 
when  it  had  been  snowing  from  early  morning. 
The  snows  were  drifted  in  the  streets,  the  wind 
was  howling,  and  the  short  winter’s  day  was 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  their  hearts  were  full 
of  dread  of  encountering  the  driving,  blinding 


140  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

snow  in  their  way  to  their  obscure  homes.  Mr. 
Curtis  came  (some  of  them  “knew  he  would,” 
as  the  poor  frozen  sailors  said  to  Dr.  Kane)  with 
three  large,  roomy  sleighs  (got  at  his  own  ex¬ 
pense),  packed  all  the  little  ones  in,  took  the 
least  into  his  own  care,  and  did  not  leave  them 
till  they  were  all  safe  with  their  mothers. 

Many  such  touching  acts  of  kindness  might 
be  recorded ;  but,  though  they  impress  us  like 
the  delicious  showers  in  a  drought,  they  bear 
no  comparison  to  that  steady  work  and  care, 
that,  like  the  providential  succession  of  seed¬ 
time  and  harvest,  day  and  night,  marked  Mr. 
Curtis’s  devotion  to  the  schools.  “  He  discov¬ 
ered  at  an  early  period  the  deceptive  manner 
in  which  examinations  were  carried  on,  and 
changed  the  whole  policy  to  such  a  degree  that 
the  very  teachers  who  for  years  had  been  deem¬ 
ed  most  successful  were  proved  most  unfaith¬ 
ful,  and  those  who  had  been  most  blamed  turn¬ 
ed  out  most  worthy.  He  made  a  close  scien¬ 
tific  investigation  of  the  laws  of  ventilation,  and 
procured  them  to  be  applied  to  the  Public 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YOKK.  141 

/ 

Schools.  He  studied  the  anatomy  of  the  hu¬ 
man  form  to  find  out  just  what  kind  of  sup¬ 
port  the  spine  of  youth  required  in  its  seden¬ 
tary  attitude,  and  invented  school-chairs  and 
other  furniture  since  universally  adopted.”* 

“  He  taught  the  children,”  says  his  friend, 
George  Trimble,  “how  they  should  sit,  stand, 
and  walk ;  how  to  hold  and  use  their  books ; 
how  to  sweep;  doing  his  best  for  them  for 
whom  his  love  was  unbounded.  ”f 

He  also  taught  them  how  to  hold  their  books, 
and  how  to  turn  over  the  leaves.  Some  of  our 
eminent  preachers  and  lecturers,  who  still  ad¬ 
here  to  the  old  practice  of  the  wetted  thumb, 
might  have  profited  by  his  lessons.  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis’s  labors  were  not  sinecures.  He  had  some 
difficulty  in  overcoming  the  opposition  to  the 

*  Dr.  Bellows. 

f  To  the  few  of  our  readers  who  do  not  know  the  worth 
of  George  Trimble’s  testimony,  we  may  be  permitted  to  say 
that  he  is,  according  to  the  strictest  sect  of  his  religion,  a 
“Friend” — one  of  those  who  allow  themselves  no  more 
decoration  or  extravagance  in  words  than  in  dress. 


/ 


142  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

introduction  of  slate-sponges  into  the  schools. 
The  conservatives  contended  for  the  old  usage, 
for  dependence  on  personal  resources,  the  sali¬ 
va  and  the  palm  of  the  hand.  But  the  sponges 
carried  it  over  their  heads,  and  helped  to  form 
a  habit  of  cleanliness  in  thousands  of  children. 
Joseph  Curtis  was  a  strict  economist,  but  in  his 
estimation  it  was  a  miserable  economy  that 
would  sacrifice  the  cultivation  of  the  important 
habit  of  cleanliness  to  the  sordid  saving  of  a 
few  hundred  dollars. 

His  teaching  was  after  the  good  old  manner 
of  parable  and  maxim.  When  his  maxims 
were  communicated,  he  expounded  them  by  a 
pithy  exhortation.  He  distributed  rules  of 
manners,  printed  on  a  small  bit  of  paper.  We 
have  before  us  the  following  examples : 

“  My  son,  never  sit  while  a  lady  is  standing, 
nor  a  man,  if  he  is  older  than  yourself. 

“Hever  accept  a  seat  without  giving  an  ex¬ 
pression  of  thanks  by  word  or  sign.” 

“  Order  is  Heaven’s  first  law so  said  the 
poet,  and  to  Joseph  Curtis  the  world  was  very 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  143 

unheavenly  without  it.  He  continually  ex¬ 
horted  the  children  on  this  point.  He  thought 
nothing  too  trifling  to  be  noticed:  children 
meeting  children  were  always  to  pass  to  the 
right.  t:  The  right,  as  in  all  military  and  civil 
organizations,  was  the  head.”  He  introduced 
many  mechanical  contrivances  to  facilitate  or¬ 
der  in  the  schools.  He  provided  “  a  place  for 
every  thing  f  and  insisted  that  every  thing  should 
be  kept  in  its  place ;  and  this  rule  was  held  up 
to  the  children  as  next  to  the  golden  one. 
This  was  of  incalculable  benefit  to  children 
who,  for  the  most  part,  came  from  homes  where 
they  had  not  received  the  first  idea  of  order. 
He  was  fond  of  telling  them  anecdotes  to  illus¬ 
trate  the  worth  of  this  virtue  by  the  want  of  it, 
and  there  was  one  which  some  of  our  young 
friends  may  still  remember.  It  was  an  occur¬ 
rence  in  the  life  of  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis,  and  at  his  request  it  was  written  down 
(somewhat  amplified)  by  the  writer  of  this  me¬ 
moir.  We  feel  sure  it  will  give  pleasure  to 
those  of  our  young  friends  who  heard  it  from 


144  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

the  lips  of  Mr.  Curtis  to  recall  it ;  we  therefore 
give  it  at  length. 

John  Leake  and  the  Pail  of  Water. 

John  Leake  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Mr.  Curtis’s  Connecticut  home.  Order  was  not 
Leake’s  first  law,  nor  his  last.  Though  he  was 
a  good-natured,  easy-tempered,  obliging  man, 
there  was  no  one  whom  his  neighbors  so  much 
dreaded  seeing  approach  their  homes.  “  There 
comes  Leake  to  borrow  something,”  they  would 
say,  and  hoe,  hammer,  or  rake  were  grudgingly 
lent,  for  they  were  certain  that  Leake  would 
lose  or  forget  the  article,  or,  at  best,  return  it 
minus  a  handle.  A  story  went  the  rounds  that 
Leake’s  next  neighbor,  out  of  patience,  said  to 
him,  “Yes,  take  the  hoe;  but  you  must  use  it 
only  in  my  corn-field.”  Time  went  on,  and 
Leake’s  affairs  ran  down,  as  slack  men’s  will, 
and  he  decided  to  pull  up  stakes  and  move  to 
Vermont,  then  a  tract  of  unsettled  and  produc¬ 
tive  land,  and  called  the  “  new  state.”  Leake’s 
Connecticut  friends  gathered  about  the  great 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  145 


wagon  in  winch,  his  battered  household  goods, 
and  his  wife  and  children  were  packed,  and 
sorry  they  were,  at  the  last,  to  part  with  him ; 
they  now  forgot  his  teasing  faults,  and  felt  only 
that  he  was  a  cheerful,  kind-hearted  fellow. 

Rustic  tokens  of  good-will  were  offered  at 
parting.  The  best  of  these  was  a  bright  new 
axe,  with  a  strong  helve,  on  which  the  giver’s 
name  and  John’s  were  both  carved  and  painted, 
and  tied  together  with  a  true-lover’s  knot — an 
odd  flourish  for  an  axe-helve.  u  Take  care  of 
this,  John,”  said  Uncle  Ben,  the  giver,  “  and  it 
will  be  better  than  gold  to  you  in  the  new 
state.”  The  axe  fulfilled  its  mission;  it  did 
prove  of  more  value  to  Leake  than  a  world 
full  of  gold. 

“N o  offense,  John,”  said  another  neighbor, 
taking  a  card  from  his  pocket ;  u  here  is  some¬ 
thing  that,  if  you  will  tack  it  up  over  your  fire¬ 
place  and  take  heed  to  it,  will  be  sure  to  make 
you  a  forehanded  man  in  the  new  state.” 
Leake  looked  at  the  writing  on  the  card.  It 
was  the  good  old  household  rule :  11 A  time  for 

K 


146  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

every  thing,  and  every  thing  in  its  time;  a 
place  for  every  thing,  and  every  thing  in  its 
place.”  Leake  read  it  aloud,  and  then  the 
good-natured  fellow  said,  chuckling,  “  Thank’e, 
neighbor ;  it’s  a  pretty  smart  rod,  but  it  sha’n’t 
fall  on  a  fool’s  back.  I’ll  take  care  of  it and 
he  deposited  it  in  the  crown  of  his  hat,  his 
usual  place  of  safe-keeping.  “There  it  goes,” 
said  the  giver  to  one  of  the  by-standers ;  “  that’s 
the  last  of  it.  Poor  Leake!  You  can’t  teach 
an  old  dog  new  tricks.”  When  the  movers 
halted  that  day  for  their  nooning,  the  very 
first  time  John  took  his  hat  off  he  dropped 
out  Uncle  Ben’s  card  without  perceiving  it. 
His  son,  Lyman  Leake,  did  see  it.  Lyman,  a 
lad  of  ten  or  eleven,  was  the  very  opposite  of 
his  father,  made  so,  probably,  by  the  same  influ¬ 
ence  that  makes  the  “  light-heeled  daughter  of 
the  heavy-heeled  mother.”  Some  parents  are 
examples;  some,  alas!  are  beacons.  Lyman 
picked  up  the  card,  and  probably  thinking, 
“  Father  will  never  miss  it,  and  never,  never 
take  care  of  it,”  he  slipped  it  into  his  own  little 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  147 

leathern  purse,  which  had  also  been  given  him 
for  a  parting  token. 

Lyman  was  to  learn,  by  a  hard  experience, 
the  worth  of  the  words  written  on  that  card. 
A  due  observance  of  them  through  a  life-time 
would  give  a  large  figure  in  money  results,  be¬ 
sides  a  world  of  comfort. 

The  little  family  arrived,  after  some  mishaps 
(to  be  expected),  such  as  losing  their  whip, 
leaving  their  halters  and  their  water-pail  at  a 
brook,  etc.,  at  their  lodge  in  a  vast  wilderness. 
But  in  two  years  they  got  well  ahead,  in  spite 
of  Leake’s  destructive  and  obstructive  habits, 
for  he  was  a  hard-working  fellow.  Fields  were 
cleared  and  tilled  around  him  ;  he  had  built  a 
small  framed  house  adjoining  the  log  hut; 
neighbors  had  come  in  at  no  great  distance, 
and  a  village  was  growing  up  not  far  from 
him. 

In  spite  of  good  advice,  he  had  connected  a 
wood-house  and  stable  with  his  house.  “  Take 
care,  Leake,”  said  a  friend  to  him ;  “it  needs  a 
careful  man  to  build  so.  A  fire  in  winter  up 


148  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

in  this  cold  country  is  something  dreadful :  it’s 
like  gunpowder — a  flash,  and  all  is  gone.” 

“ Oh,  never  fear,”  said  Leake ;  “I  have  had 
my  portion  of  ill  fortune  in  this  world ;  my 
luck  has  turned.”  (Mr.  Curtis  often  impressed 
on  the  children  that  what  shiftless  people  call 
ill  fortune  and  bad  luck  is  but  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  their  own  imprudence  or  care¬ 
lessness.) 

It  was  during  the  third  winter  of  the  Leakes’ 
residence  in. their  new  home  that,  just  at  the 
close  of  a  short  winter’s  day,  the  merry  tink¬ 
ling  of  sleigh-bells  was  heard,  and  the  creak¬ 
ing  of  the  runners  on  the  hard-frozen  snow, 
and  a  little  cutter  (a  single  sleigh)  stopped  at 
Leake’s.  It  was  expected;  the  door  opened, 
and  shouts  of  joy  followed,  and  glad  greetings 
of  “uncle,”  and  “aunt,”  and  “cousins.”  “Un¬ 
cle  Ben”  and  his  family  had  come  from  Con¬ 
necticut  to  make  a  long-promised  visit.  When 
supper  was  ended,  the  card  bearing  the  domes¬ 
tic  axiom  caught  Uncle  Ben’s  eye.  It  was 
nailed  to  the  wall  over  the  mantle-piece.  “I 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  149 

declare!”  he  exclaimed;  “well,  I  never  ex¬ 
pected  to  see  that  bit  of  pasteboard  again.  I 
give  yon  a  credit-mark  for  preserving  that, 
John.”  “  You  must  give  that  credit-mark  to 
Lyman,  brother ;  he  preserved  the  card ;  but 
you  may  give  me  one  for  teaching  him  care.” 
Uncle  Ben  smiled.  “  Yes,”  he  said,  “  you  have 
taught  him,  John,  but  wrong  end  foremost — 
wrong  end  foremost.” 

The  evening  passed  off  delightfully.  The 
unstinted  fire  of  a  new  country  burned  bright¬ 
ly.  A  basket  of  fine  apples  from  the  old 
“home-orchard  in  Connecticut”  was  unpack¬ 
ed,  and  nuts  were  cracked  and  eaten.  The 
elders  talked  about  old  times.  Leake  gave  the 
history  of  his  toils  on  his  new  farm,  and  his 
successes.  He  told  (he  had  some  right  to  boast, 
for  he  had  worked  diligently)  how  much  land 
he  had  cleared,  what  crops  he  had  raised,  and 
concluded  with,  “  My  barn  is  full ;  I  have  plen¬ 
ty  of  wheat,  and  corn,  and  oats  in  the  loft  over 
my  wood-house ;  and  pork  in  my  cellar ;  and 
my  wife  has  taken  care  of  the  trinkets — butter, 


150  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

and  apple-sauce,  and  pickles,  and  the  like;” 
and  he  ended  his  boast  of  rural  riches  with 
saying,  “I  guess,  Ben,  my  old  neighbors  could 
not  twit  me  now.” 

“  Your  old  neighbors,  John,  always  knew 
you  for  an  honest,  hard-working  man ;  it  was 
only  your  careless  ways,  your  want  of  order, 
that  troubled  us.  You  know  I  used  to  tell 
you  that  if  you  put  ever  so  much  meal  into 
a  bag  with  a  hole  in  it,  it  would  run  away.” 

“  Yes,  yes,  I  know ;  and  just  so  Lyman  talks 
now.  Among  you,  you  put  an  old  head  on  his 
young  shoulders.”  And  thus  the  elders  talk¬ 
ed,  and  the  youngsters  had  their  pleasure ;  the 
visitors  telling  the  wonders  of  jugglers,  and 
wax- work  shows,  and  delights  incident  to  their 
down  country  advanced  civilization ;  and  the 
“new  state”  children  relating  adventures  with 
bears  and  wild-cats,  and  their  own  personal 
concerns  with  taming  squirrels  and  catching 
rabbits;  and,  finally,  the  evening  closed  with 
a  game  of  “forfeits,”  in  which  Lyman,  having 
been  sentenced  to  the  common  penalty  of 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  HEW  YORK.  151 

“bowing  to  the  prettiest,  kneeling  to  the  wit¬ 
tiest,  and  kissing  the  one  he  loved  best,”  de¬ 
clared  that  all  these  dues  were  to  his  Cousin 
Sally.  His  Cousin  Sally  protested  and  resist¬ 
ed  ;  the  girls  all  joined  her,  and,  after  a  laugh¬ 
ing  scramble  together,  Lyman’s  oldest  sister 
caught  up  a  candle,  called  “  Cousin  Sally”  to 
follow  her,  and  they  made  good  their  escape  to 
the  bed-room,  and  bolted  Lyman  out.  Lyman 
retreated;  the  evening  was  far  advanced,  and 
the  Leakes  and  their  guests  separated  for  the 
night,  but  not  till  after  Lyman  performed  a 
duty  that  had  been  postponed  by  his  uncle’s 
arrival.  While  his  mother,  “  on  hospitable 
thoughts  intent,”  was  preparing  her  little  af¬ 
fairs  for  the  morning’s  breakfast,  Lyman  went 
to  the  wood-house  to  split  kindlings  for  the 
morning’s  fires ;  and,  having  finished,  he  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  of  showing  his  well- 
preserved  axe  to  his  Uncle  Ben.  “  The  boy 
is  a  fool  about  that  axe,”  said  his  father;  “if 
it  was  made  of  a  wedge  of  gold  he  could  not 
be  more  choice  of  it;  he  even  hides  it  away 


152  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

from  me  that  gave  it  to  him.”  Lyman  looked 
at  his  uncle  with  a  quiet  smile.  “  Come,  come, 
Lyman,”  said  his  father,  “  there’s  reason  in  the 
roasting  of  eggs :  throw  your  axe  in  here  for 
to-night.”  He  opened  the  door  of  a  little  clos¬ 
et  next  the  fire-place.  “  Don’t  go  clear  back 
to  the  wood-house  this  cold  night.”  u  A  place 
for  every  thing,  and  every  thing  in  its  jDlace,” 
replied  Lyman,  and  the  axe  was  returned  to 
the  wood-house.  “  How  that’s  what  I  call  su¬ 
perstitious,”  said  the  father,  while  he  took  from 
the  open  closet  a  splinter-broom  to  sweep  up 
the  widespread  coals  of  the  fire  he  had  just 
raked.  Jast  as  he  was  finishing  his  wife  call¬ 
ed  to  him  from  the  kitchen,  and,  hastily  throw¬ 
ing  the  broom  into  the  closet ,  he  went  to  her. 
“John,”  she  said,  “there’s  no  water  in  the 
house.” 

“Well,  what  of  that?” 

“  Why,  you  know,  I  never  like  to  go  to  bed 
without  a  pail  of  water  at  hand.” 

“I  know  that  is  one  of  your  superstitions.” 
(John  Leake,  in  spite  of  all  his  experience,  per- 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YOKK.  153 

sisted  in  looking  upon  the  provisions  of  fore¬ 
sight  as  “superstitions.”)  “Let  it  go,  just  for 
this  one  night,  wife ;  it’s  dark,  and  biting  cold, 
and  the  way  up  to  the  well  all  shod  with  glare 

*  )  7 

ice. 

“  ’Tis  bad,”  said  his  wife,  meekly,  and  urged 
no  more ;  but,  as  she  looked  wistfully  at  the 
empty  pail,  she  thought,  if  they  should  chance 
to  want  water  in  the  night,  it  would  not  be  any 
better  getting  it,  and  an  anxious  sigh  escaped 
her.  “  Coming  events”  do  sometimes  seem  “  to 

cast  their  shadows  before.” 

* 

The  family  were  soon  all  in  bed,  and  in  their 
first  sleep,  the  profoundest  of  the  night;  but 
there  is  no  sleep  from  which  a  mother  can  not 
be  awakened  by  a  restless  child,  and  about 
one  o’clock  Mrs.  Leake  was  roused  from  hers 
by  the  nestling  of  her  baby.  She  instantly 
wakened  her  husband  with,  “John,  do  get  up, 
and  see  where  this  smoke  comes  from ;  the  room 
is  full  of  it.”  Their  bed-room  was  off  the  sit¬ 
ting-room  ;  the  door  was  open  into  it,  and  the 
moment  Leake  raised  his  head  he  saw  a  bright 


154  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


light  shining  through  the  crevices  of  the  closet- 
door  into  which  he  had  thrown  the  splinter- 
broom.  Some  small  coals  had  adhered  to  the 
broom  when  John  swept  the  hearth,  but,  shut  in 
the  closet  with  very  little  air,  they  had  been 
slow  in  kindling;  but  now  they  had  kindled 
thoroughly,  and  when  Leake  sprang  to  the 
closet-door  and  opened  it  the  broom  was  in  a 
lighted  blaze,  and  the  heated  partition  had 
taken  fire.  John  seized  the  broom  and  threw 
it  in  the  fire-place,  and  at  that  moment  the  fire 
had  made  so  little  progress  that  a  single  pail 
of  water  at  hand  would  have  extinguished  it. 

“  Oh,  the  pail  of  water!”  shrieked  Mrs.  Leake. 
Leake  thought  with  anguish  of  the  empty  pail, 
rushed  to  the  kitchen  for  it,  and  rushed  to  the 
well.  The  ground  was  descending  to  the  house, 
and,  as  he  had  said,  “slippery  as  glass,”  and 
Leake  fell.  Again  he  let  the  bucket  down  to 
the  deep  well  and  filled  his  pail,  and  reached 
the  house  with  it,  but  the  air  had  rushed  in 
through  the  open  door  and  blown  up  the  fire 
like  a  furnace  bellows.  It  would  not  now  have 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  155 

felt  twenty  pails  of  water.  The  smoke  filled 
the  whole  house,  and  the  crackling  of  the  fire 
and  the  outcries  of  John  and  his  wife  had 
awakened  the  whole  family,  who  now  came 
out — all  excepting  the  two  girls,  who  had  bolt¬ 
ed  themselves  into  the  little  bed-room,  had 
talked  together  late  into  the  night,  and  were 
now  sleeping  on  in  spite  of  all  the  mischief, 
danger,  and  misery  about  them.  Lyman  rush¬ 
ed  through  an  outer  room  filled  to  suffocation 
with  smoke,  and  shrieked,  “Anne !  Sally !  fire ! 
fire!”  There  was  no  answer.  In  vain  he 
banged  against  the  door:  it  was  too  securely 
bolted.  Quick  as  thought,  he  sprang  to  a  win¬ 
dow  communicating  with  the  wood-house,  pass¬ 
ed  through  it,  and  in  a  moment  returned  with 
his  axe.  The  smoke  had  become  fire — the 
room  was  blazing.  But,  with  Heaven’s  help 
and  blessing  (he  said  he  could  not — he  could 
not  possibly  have  done  it  alone),  in  a  breath 
the  door  was  battered  down,  and  in  another 
breath  the  girls  jumped  from  the  window  un¬ 
harmed,  followed  by  Lyman. 


156  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

The  rapid  consumption  of  a  wooden  house 
in  the  country,  in  a  cold,  gusty  night,  can 
scarcely  be  conceived  of  by  those  who  have  not 
witnessed  it.  There  was  but  just  time  to  ex¬ 
tricate  the  horses  and  cattle  from  the  stable 
when  that,  as  well  as  the  house  and  wood- 
house,  was  enveloped  in  flames.  All,  as  Leake’s 
neighbor  had  forewarned  him,  went  together, 
and  in  one  mass  of  ashes  lay  the  labor  of  many 
months — the  dear  old  furniture  of  the  Connec¬ 
ticut  home,  all  the  children’s  pretty  things, 
fond  memorials  and  precious  keepsakes  that  no 
toil,  no  art,  no  kindness  could  make  good  to 
them.  “And  all  this  dreadful  loss,”  as  Mr. 
Curtis  would  repeat  to  his  listeners  in  the 
school,  “  for  the  want  of  a  pail  of  water  in  the 
right  place.  And  life  saved  by  the  axe  being 
in  the  ‘right  place,’  instead  of  having  been 
thrown  into  the  closet,  as  Leake  proposed,  be¬ 
side  the  broom,  by  the  careless  use  of  which  all 
the  harm  was  done,” 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  157 

Mr.  Curtis  first  suggested  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  that  excellent  little  book  which  has 
been  of  such  service  in  the  Public  Schools, 
u  Conversations  on  Common  Things,”  and  we 
believe  it  was  written  at  his  request. 

He  has  left  a  sort  of  manual,  which  illustrates, 
in  his  simple,  practical  style,  his  ideas  of  the 
best  mode  of  teaching  in  the  Primary  Schools. 
He  did  not  receive  his  notions  from  theories  in 
books;  they  were  the  result  of  his  own  wis¬ 
dom  and  observation. 

Some  of  the  children  still  in  the  schools  will 
remember  how  often,  while  they  were  in  the 
Primary  Schools,  and  yet  in  ignorance  of  the 
rudiments  instilled  there,  they  have  stood  in  a 
semicircle  before  the  black-board,  and,  with 
their  eyes  turning  eagerly  from  that  to  the 
dear  teacher,  they  have  received  a  lesson  simi¬ 
lar  to  the  following,  which  we  transfer  from 
Mr.  Curtis’s  manuscript : 

11  After  the  word  Cat  has  been  given  out  by 
the  teacher,  and  the  class  have  each  written  it, 
he  asks,  1  What  word  is  this?’  The  class  an- 


158  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

swer,  ‘  Cat.’  Teaclier.  ‘  Now  spell  it.’  They 
spell  it.  ‘Yes,  this  is  the  way  to  spell  cat. 
Now  you  can  spell  cat,  and  write  it  too.  A 
cat,  you  know,  is  an  animal,  and  it  is  called  a 
domestic  animal  because  it  stays  in  the  house 
with  people.  It  has  four  legs.  All  four-leg¬ 
ged  animals  are  quadrupeds.  It  catches  mice 
and  rats,  and  eats  them.  Most  little  girls  like 
to  have  a  kitten  to  play  with.  A  kitten,  you 
know,  is  a  young  cat.  Little  boys  are  some¬ 
times  pleased  with  kittens;  they  like  to  see 
them  play.  I  have  known  some  boys  that 
tease  and  hurt  cats ;  now  this  is  not  right.  I 
have  heard  of  a  little  boy  who  had  been  sick, 
and  when  he  w:as  getting  better  he  wanted  to 
play  with  a  cat,  and  he  whipped  and  abused 
the  cat,  and  made  it  cry ;  and  then  it  would 
run  away  from  the  boy;  and  then  he  would 
cry  because  the  cat  would  not  stay  with  him, 
and  let  him  do  as  he  had  a  mind  to.  His 
mother  would  go  and  get  the  cat,  and  bring  it 
to  him  in  the  bed,  and  make  it  lie  still ;  and  he 
would  then  pull  the  cat’s  ears,  and  hair,  and 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  159 

tail.  One  day,  when  the  boy’s  mother  was  out 
of  the  room,  and  nobody  was  in  the  room  but 
the  boy  and  the  cat,  and  he  was  hurting  the 
cat  very  much,  she  bit  the  boy,  and  scratched 
him  in  his  face  and  eyes  till  the  boy  was  very 
bloody.  He  cried  and  halloed  as  loud  as  he 
could  till  his  mother  came.  She  saw  the  cat 
tearing  the  boy  dreadfully,  and  as  soon  as  the 
cat  saw  the  mother  she  jumped  off  the  bed  and 
ran  out  of  the  house,  and  never  returned.  (Sen¬ 
sible  cat !)  The  mother  said  she  would  have 
the  cat  killed;  but  the  father,  when  he  came 
and  saw  how  fearfully  the  poor  boy  was  scratch¬ 
ed,  said  he  hoped  the  cat  would  not  come  back 
again,  but  if  she  did  he  would  not  have  her 
killed,  for  if  his  boy  had  let  the  cat  alone  she 
would  not  have  hurt  him.”  Here  was  a  lesson 
in  morals  appended  to  the  idea  the  pupil  had 
acquired  of  cat — justice  and  mercy  both  incul¬ 
cated. 

Another  example  of  the  word  not  is  given, 
and  concludes  with  this  illustration :  “You  use 
this  word  when  your  mother  sends  you  of  an 


160  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

errand,  and  you  tell  lier  you  will  not  stop  by 
the  way ;  or  when  you  promise  that  you  will 
not  tell  a  falsehood — a  story.” 

The  word  snow  being  spelled  and  defined  in 
the  usual  way,  he  says,  “  Now  for  the  forma¬ 
tion  of  snow,  which  comes  from  the  clouds — 
but  what  are  clouds  made  of?  (so  here  we 
must  stop  to  talk  about  clouds) ;  and  when  we 
find  that  clouds  are  made  of  a  material  that 
will  make  snow,  we  shall  more  readily  under¬ 
stand  how  snow  is  formed ;  so  let  us  inquire 
and  see  if  we  can  understand  how  clouds  are 
formed.  You  may  remember  that  last  Mon¬ 
day  morning  when  you  came  to  school  it  was 
very  foggy.  You  could  not  see  a  church  stee¬ 
ple  any  farther  than  one  square;  and  if  you 
were  on  the  wharf,  you  could  not  see  more  than 
half  across  the  river.  The  fog  was  so  thick 
that  the  man  that  steered  the  ferry-boat  could 
not  see  the  land,  and  he  was  afraid  the  boat 
would  run  against  the  wharf  and  break  to 
pieces.  Now,  you  know,  fog  is  damp — some¬ 
times  so  damp  that  your  clothes  are  wet  with 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  161 

it.  This  fog  is  a  cloud  that  you  have  been  in ; 
all  clouds  are  nothing  more  nor  less  than  fog. 
This  fog  is  floating  in  the  air,  and  sometimes 
rises  very  high — high  enough  to  make  ice ;  so 
the  fog  freezes  into  fine  ice — fine  ice  crystals. 
These  crystals  are  heavier  than  what  is  not 
frozen,  and  they  descend  toward  the  earth  and 
unite  with  other  crystals,  and  two  are  heavier 
than  one,  and  as  they  descend  they  unite  with 
others;  and  by  the  time  they  have  passed 
through  the  cloud,  they  have  come  to  the  size 
we  see  them  when  they  light  on  the  earth. 

“You  have  all  seen,  and  felt,  and  handled 
snow.  Do  you  not  think  the  falling  snow  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  sights  you  ever  looked  at — 
these  light  flakes,  pure  white,  gently  descend¬ 
ing  ?  And  when  the  storm  is  over,  and  the  sun 
is  shining  on  the  ground  and  houses  with  this 
light  covering  of  pure  white,  is  it  not  beautiful  ? 
Yery  beautiful.”  Thus  Mr.  Curtis  formed  in 
the  children  the  habit  of  the  observation  of  the 
phenomena  of  Nature,  and  gently  insinuated 
into  their  minds  a  feeling  of  their  beauty — an 

L 


162  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

inestimable  blessing.  God  gives  alike  to  tbe 
poor  and  rich,  the  ever-vaying  spectacle  of  Na¬ 
ture.  Each  day  the  world  is  adorned  with  pic¬ 
tures  from  which  the  changing  light  brings  out, 
at  every  moment,  a  new  form  and  a  new  beau¬ 
ty.  What  a  boon  is  conferred  by  educating 
the  eye  to  observe,  and  thus  to  minister  to  the 
delicate  sense  of  beauty ! 

After  one  day’s  lesson,  Mr.  Curtis  says  to  his  * 
class,  gently  condescending  to  their  stage  of 
knowledge,  “  Now  have  we  not  learned  some¬ 
thing  to-day?  What  an  easy  matter  it  is  to 
learn !  Yes,  and  an  easy  matter  to  forget  what 
we  have  learned ;  and  that  you  may  not  forget, 
you  must  talk  about  what  you  have  learned 
out  of  school.  When  you  go  home  you  must 
tell  your  mother  or  some  one  else  about  it,  and 
if  you  have  forgotten,  come  to  me  and  I  will 
tell  you  over  again.  About  a  year  ago  Dr. 
Samuel  Mitchill,  a  very  learned  man,  lived  in 
White  Stre.et.  He  was  a  very  remarkable  man. 
He  read  a  great  many  books,  and  observed  a 
great  many  things;  and  he  often  said  to  his 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  HEW  YORK.  163 

friends  that  his  much  reading  and  thinking 
would  have  done  him  little  good  if  he  had 
not  talked  about  them.  ‘After  I  have  told  a 
story,’  he  said,  ‘  I  do  not  forget  it.’  ” 


It  has  been  seen  in  the  example  of  the  “  cat” 
how  Mr.  Curtis  moulded  a  moral  into  his  in¬ 
struction.  This  he  considered  its  leaven,  and 
it  was  truly  a  leaven,  for  it  imparted  vitality  to 
the  whole  lesson,  and  could  not  be  dissociated 
from  it.  It  gave  him  the  most  serious  concern 
to  observe  how  much,  in  all  our  schools,  the 

intellectual  instruction  was  in  advance  of  the 

* 

moral.  “  These  children  understand  thorough¬ 
ly  the  rules  of  arithmetic,”  he  has  been  heard 
to  say  when  they  were  demonstrating  their  at¬ 
tainments;  “if  their  hearts  were  as  well  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  golden  rule,  what  might  they 
not  do  for  their  generation !” 

As  on  the  teachers  mainly  depended  the 
prosperity  of  the  schools,  Mr.  Curtis  was  a  close 
observer  of  them,  and  one  who  knew  him  well 


164  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

could  pretty  accurately  graduate  their  deserts 
by  the  grave  demeanor  or  kindly  smile  with 
which  he  greeted  them.  He  reverenced  the 
office  of  a  teacher  as  it  deserves  to  be  rever¬ 
enced,  and  for  no  human  dignity  did  he  feel  an 
equal  respect,  whether  the  teacher  were  in  the 
pulpit  or  the  school.  Ho  excellence  in  the 
teachers  of  our  Public  Schools  escaped  his 
watchful  eye,  nor  a  tribute  from  his  grateful 
heart;  no  error  of  commission  or  omission 
passed  unobserved. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  accompany  him  in  his 
visits  to  the  schools;  there  he  was  at  home. 
His  greeting  of  the  bright  young  women  at  the 
desk  was  like  the  blessing  of  a  father,  ne  had 
the  freedom  of  their  recesses,  and  with  a  smile, 
understood  by  all  parties,  he  would  open  their 
drawers,  take  out  their  record-books,  and  ex¬ 
amine  them.  Hothing  escaped  him,  and  noth¬ 
ing  called  forth  such  grave  questions  as  the  in¬ 
fliction  of  corporal  punishment.  He  surely  had 
a  right  to  question  its  efficacy  who  had  success¬ 
fully  governed  the  hardened  subjects  of  the 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  165 

House  of  Kefuge  with  rare  and  slight  recourse 
to  it.  It  was  permitted  in  the  schools,  but  no 
instance  of  its  use  that  came  under  Mr.  Curtis’s 
cognizance  passed  without  investigation  and 
comment.  It  was,  he  thought,  the  “short  and 
easy  mode”  for  the  teacher,  but  effected  no  per¬ 
manent  good  to  the  pupil.  It  might  produce 
external  obedience,  but  no  amendment  of  the 
heart.  It  was  like  cutting  off  the  inconvenient 
sprouts  of  a  noxious  weed  without  eradicating 
its  roots. 

In  Mr.  Curtis’s  opinion,  female  teachers  were 
to  be  preferred,  without  exception,  for  the  Pri¬ 
mary  Schools  for  both  sexes,  and  for  all  the 
schools  so  soon  as  their  education  reached  the 
point  of  qualification  for  teaching  the  higher 
classes.  He  believed  their  natural  mental  abil¬ 
ity  equal  to  that  of  the  males,  and  their  influ- 
fluence  on  the  morals  and  manners  of  the  pu¬ 
pils  far  superior. 

“Women  know  the  way  to  rear  up  children; 

They  know  a  simple,  merry,  tender  knack ;  ” 

a  “knack”  of  softening  with  their  gentler  ele- 


166  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

ment  the  masculine  roughness;  a  11 knack”  at 
detecting  and  developing  the  feelings,  at  mould¬ 
ing  the  temper,  and  anticipating  the  wants  of 
children.  This  knack  springs  from  the  in¬ 
stinct  of  maternal  love,  the  quickening  princi¬ 
ple,  the  all-embracing  force. 

In  support  of  Mr.  Curtis’s  opinion  on  this 
important  subject,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  children  of  our  Public  Schools  come,  for 
the  most  part,  from  coarse  homes  and  vulgar 
associates,  from  fireside  disputes  and  street- 
fights,  and  such  need  the  example  of  female 
refinement,  and  the  patience  of  female  detail  to 
tame  and  civilize  them.  They  demand  a  far 
different  training  from  the  unchristian  fagging 
and  ring-fights  that  seem  to  be  deemed  essen¬ 
tial  to  make  men  of  the  English  aristocracy. 

Mr.  Curtis  considered  the  disparity  between 
the  salaries  of  male  and  female  teachers  an  ob¬ 
vious  injustice. 

We  quote  his  opinions  on  these  points  as  de¬ 
serving  the  profoundest  respect.  No  man  had 
a  more  acute  observation  or  so  much  experience. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  167 

• 

He  was  a  wise  man,  and  of  the  soundest  judg¬ 
ment.  The  following  extracts  from  a  letter 
written  by  a  gentleman  (Mr.  Seton)  officially 
connected  with  the  Public  Schools,  for  a  long 
series  of  years  their  superintendent,  we  insert, 
as,  besides  its  great  interest,  it  more  than  sub¬ 
stantiates  all  we  claim  for  Mr.  Curtis.  u  Seeing 
is  believing.”  Mr.  Seton  has  recorded,  in  the 
generous  spirit  of  friendship,  what  he  saw  and 
knew. 

“We  miss,”  says  Mr.  Seton,  “his  careful 
hand,  his  useful  counsels,  and  his  cheerful 
spirits.  His  activity  was  surprising,  always 
planning  and  effecting  the  comfort  and  wel¬ 
fare  of  his  fellow-men.  Through  life’s  war¬ 
fare  I  always  saw  him  calm  and  tranquil ;  when 
the  least  otherwise,  it  flowed  from  his  earnest¬ 
ness  of  spirit  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of  educa¬ 
tion.  His  humility  would  sometimes  lead  him 
to  deem  himself  ‘  deficient ,’  but  he  had  peculiar 
and  fitting  requisites  to  promote  the  progress 
of  primary  education.  His  stores  of  knowl¬ 
edge  of  little  things,  and  treasury  of  common 


168  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

sense,  and  practical  experience  of  tlie  affairs  of 
life,  gotten  by  liabits  of  close  observation,  with 
a  retentive  memory,  made  him  feel  ready  for 
the  work  to  which  he  gave  so  many  years  of 
love  and  care.  I  forward  you  a  single  docu¬ 
ment,  one  of  many  his  diligent  hand  has  vol¬ 
untarily  prepared.  It  is  a  report  on  the  use 
of  the  libraries  of  the  Public  Schools.  It  con¬ 
tains  more  than  ten  thousand  figures.  The  ex¬ 
amination  of  the  numerous  papers  from  which 
the  items  are  obtained  of  course  give  great  in¬ 
crease  of  labor  to  the  preparation  of  so  com¬ 
plete  a  statistic  table.  Such  was  prepared  ev¬ 
ery  six  months  by  the  same  hand,  with  patient 
and  untiring  zeal.”* 

*  In  addition  to  this  laborious  document,  there  were  oth¬ 
ers  “prepared,”  Mr.  Seton  says,  “for  many  years  by  our 
friend  :  accounts  of  fuel  and  of  other  supplies ;  of  the  com¬ 
parative  state  of  the  schools  at  examination.  These  papers 
were  vastly  beneficial  as  guides  to  future  operations.  He 
had  these  papers  of  twelve  years  pasted  together  for  a  com¬ 
parative  view.  A  printed  copy  of  all  would  have  covered 
ten  feet  by  eight.  The  memorandums,  the  labor  of  his  own 
hand,  were  twice  that  size.  It  is  a  monster  product  of  gen- 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  169 

(This  u  statistic”  was  made  from  records  kept 
— at  Mr.  Curtis’s  suggestion — -by  each  Public 
School  of  the  number  of  times  each  book  was 
drawn  out  and  read  during  the  term.  This 
was  not  only  to  test  the  acceptance  of  the  books 
by  the  young  readers,  and  their  preferences, 
but  the  vigilance  of  the  teachers  over  this  im¬ 
portant  department  of  instruction.)  “  His  punc¬ 
tuality  was  proverbial.  No  committee  ever 
waited  for  Aim,  and  he  was  always  ready  to 
take  the  heaviest  portion  of  the  work.  I  have 
known  him  to  attend  successive  meetings  for 
twelve  consecutive  hours,  from  nine  A.M.  to 
nine  P.  M.,  with  no  other  refreshment  than 
bread  and  cheese.  His  humane  endeavors  to 
lessen  the  amount  of  human  suffering  were  con¬ 
spicuous.  He  was  ever  contriving  mechanical 
improvements  in  furniture,  etc.,  to  promote 
health,  convenience,  and  comfort.  We  are  in¬ 
debted  to  him  for  many  improvements  in  ven- 

tle  patience,  of  voluntary  labor — a  brave  testimony  of  phi¬ 
lanthropy.”  And  let  it  be  always  remembered  that  this 
was,  as  Mr.  Seton  says,  “voluntary”  and  unpaid  labor. 


170  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

tilation  and  school  furniture,  always  haying  in 
view  the  better  physical  training  of  the  pupils. 
He  was  ever  thoughtful  for  the  comfort  and 
safety  of  the  little  ones,  seeing  that  fixtures 
were  well  secured,  and  that  there  were  balus¬ 
ters  every  where  to  the  stairways.*  By  his 
advocacy  and  influence  he  greatly  lessened  the 
amount  of  corporal  punishment  in  the  schools, 
and  succeeded  in  abolishing  it  for  years  in  some 
of  them.  That  maternal  ,  sympathies  might  be 
with  the  children,  and  corporal  punishment 
lessened,  he  advocated  and  strongly  urged,  and 
successfully,  the  introduction  of  female  teach¬ 
ers  into  the  boys’  schools. 

“In  our  Public  Schools  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Board  and  of  the  Executive  Committee, 

*  Some  years  since  a  terrible  accident  occurred  in  one  of 
the  Public  Schools.  There  was  a  cry  of  fire  and  a  panic  in 
a  school-room.  The  children  rushed  out  pellmell  to  the 
stairway.  A  crazed  rack  of  a  banister,  about  which  Mr. 
Curtis  had  repeatedly  remonstrated,  gave  way,  and  the 
children  were  precipitated  into  the  area  below.  Seventy 
were  killed,  and  many  others  mutilated.  This  was  to  Mr. 
Curtis  like  a  tragedy  in  his  own  family. 


/ 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  171 

and  constantly  serving  on  special  committees, 
and  always  kept  faithfully  in  mind  the  ap¬ 
pointed  seasons  requiring  special  attention  in 
the  operations  of  the  schools.  His  personal  at¬ 
tention  was  great,  and  his  visits  were  numerous, 
amounting,  probably,  to  from  ten  to  twelve 
hundred  a  year. 

“In  the  winter  season  he  visited  at  early 
hours,  before  school-opening,  to  detect  any  neg¬ 
lect  of  duty  in  preparing  for  the  reception  of 
the  pupils  by  proper  warmth,  ventilation,  and 
cleanliness.  His  care  and  diligence  amounted 
to  drudgery;  want  of  fuel,  a  broken  lock  or 
pane  of  glass,  or  clearing  off  of  snow,  were 
promptly  and  personally  directed  and  attended 
to.  He  entered  into  the  service  with  heart  and 
mind,  always  watchful  for  the  personal  welfare 
and  moral  interests  of  pupils  and  teachers. 

“In  his  little  talks  and  addresses  to  the 
schools  he  promoted  good  manners,  kind  feel¬ 
ings,  and  every  good  habit.  The  influence  of 
his  useful  maxims  and  precepts  will  be  long 
traced  among  us.” 


/ 


172  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

We  can  not  fear  wearying  onr  readers  by  re¬ 
iterating  the  testimony  to  Mr.  Curtis’s  thorough 
work.  “There  were  each  year,”  says  Miss 
Curtis,  “semiannual  examinations  of  the  Pub¬ 
lic  Schools,  requiring  from  five  to  six  weeks 
each,  occupying  from  four  to  five  days  each 
week,  and  no  less  than  six  hours  each  day. 
My  father  scrupulously  arranged  his  business 
so  as  to  attend  every  school  examination.  He 
was  chairman  of  Primary  Schools,  and  of  the 
stove  and  fuel  committee.” 

In  order  to  secure  as  much  economy  as  could 
be  attained  in  the  consumption  of  fuel,  he  re¬ 
quired  returns  from  each  teacher  of  the  amount 
used,  and  from  these  graduated  the  quantity  re¬ 
quired.  “My  father,”  says  Miss  Curtis,  “was 
always  busy  about  some  school  matter,  and 
never  tired.  The  day  his  name  is  not  register¬ 
ed  in  some  one  of  the  trustees’  visiting-books 
would  be  worthy  of  note.  Every  Evening 
School  was  visited  in  order  and  addressed  by 
him.  He  performed  this  duty  up  to  the  even¬ 
ing  preceding  his  last  illness”  (six  days  before 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  173 

his  death).  “I  sometimes  remonstrated.  He 
would  answer,  1 1  feel  equal  to  it  now ;  I  may 
not  another  time.’  He  always  worked,  lest  the 
night  should  find  him  with  duties  unperform¬ 
ed.  His  services  (she  continues,  in  answer  to 
an  inquiry  in  that  regard)  were  not  only  gra¬ 
tuitous,  but  cost  him  many  dollars.  He  never 
had  even  his  stationery  from  the  society.  I 
am  glad  he  used  his  money  liberally  among 
schools  and  teachers.  I  have  found  several 
memorandums  of  five,  ten,  twenty  dollars  ‘  loan¬ 
ed  to  Miss  So-and-so,  because  salary  this  year 
is  small.’  Some  were  never  repaid.” 

It  was  well  said  by  one  who  did  not  speak 
without  reckoning,  “  More  than  a  million  chil¬ 
dren  have  known  and  loved  Joseph  Curtis. 
What  a  crowd  of  witnesses  to  the  worth  of 
any  man !” 

The  services  he  rendered  to  the  city  of  New 
York  are  inestimable,  and  illimitable  in  their 
consequences,  and  yet  how  few  among  our 
richest,  and  greatest,  and  “first  citizens”  (so 
styled)  thanked  him  for  them,  or  were  even 


174  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

aware  of  them.  “Was  he  so  long  time  with 
you.  (we  say  it  without  irreverence),  and  yet  ye 
have  not  known  him?”  This  old  man,  nobler 
in  his  purposes,  and  more  successful  in  their 
execution  than  the  general  who  leads  an  army 
to  victory,  or  the  eloquent  statesman  who  com¬ 
mands,  for  his  brief  hour,  the  eye  and  ear  of 
thousands,  issued  daily  from  the  vineyards  of 
his  Lord,  and  quietly  passed  along  the  crowded 
street  unheralded,  unnoticed,  except  perhaps 
by  some  luckless  child,  whom  he  would  take 
up  in  his  arms  and  comfort,  or  some  little 
brawlers  whom  he  reconciled. 

But  he  neither  sought  nor  desired  notoriety 
or  glorification.  If  a  crown  were  decreed  to 
him,  he  would  have  hidden  it  under  an  impen¬ 
etrable  veil  of  modesty.  His  place  of  recom¬ 
pense  is  with  the  Howards  and  the  Oberlyns, 
and  his  reward  shall  be  from  Him  who  knows 
“  his  works,  and  charity,  and  service,  and  faith, 
and  patience.” 

We  have  made  but  a  frail  and  simple  record 
of  Joseph  Curtis’s  worth.  The  parents  of  our 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  NEW  YORK.  175 

city  should  erect  an  enduring  memorial  to  him 
— a  statue  in  marble  or  bronze — to  which  the 
grateful  children  of  his  care  should  point,  and, 
reiterating  their  own  words,  say,  u  Do  you  Jcnow 
him  t  I  do” 


176  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 

“And  the  end  thereof  is  peace.” 

Mr.  Curtis’s  diligence  and  skill  in  his  busi¬ 
ness  affairs,  and  the  system  and  order  with 
which  he  arranged  all  his  life,  saved  a  great 
amount  of  time,  and  allowed  him  to  indulge  in 
his  favorite  pleasures.  First  and  foremost  of 
these  was  his  devotion  to  the  Public  Schools. 
In  this  luxury  he  indulged :  this  was  the  fill¬ 
ing  up  of  his  life — of  all  that  was  not  of  neces¬ 
sity  devoted  to  gaining  the  grosser  elements  by 
which  the  mortal  nature  is  sustained. 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  house  in  John 
Street,  he  was  employed  for  two  or  three  years 
in  building  “Avery’s  Rotary  Steam-engines,” 
^ind  introducing  them  into  use. 

After  this  he  held  a  respectable  station  in 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


177 


the  Custom  House.*  His  last  business,  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  that  term,  was  as  “In¬ 
spector  of  Steam-boats  and  Boilers.” 

Mr.  Curtis’s  natural  taste  for  mechanics  (we 
quote  from  Dr.  Bellows’s  sermon),  and  the 
knowledge  of  steam  he  had  perfected  in  the 
Allaire  Works,  made  him  a  natural  candidate 
for  this  office,  created  by  an  act  of  1847.  This 
office  he  filled  with  fidelity  and  success.  His 
knowledge,  and  his  interest  in  every  thing  con¬ 
nected  with  the  progress,  safety,  comfort,  and 
pride  of  steam  navigation,  made  him  the  com¬ 
panion,  friend,  and  adviser  of  all  persons  in  the 
neighborhood  connected  with  that  business. 

The  labor  and  discomforts  of  this  business 
required  all  Mr.  Curtis’s  elasticity  and  perse- 

*  In  this  connection  we  are  happy  to  note  a  rare  excep¬ 
tion  to  the  common  course  of  politicians  and  office-holders. 
The  late  Edward  Curtis,  Esq.  (not  a  relative  or  even  an 
acquaintance  of  Joseph  Curtis),  then  collector,  appointed 
him  to  this  office  upon  the  statement  of  a  mutual  friend  of 
his  qualifications  and  desert,  accompanied  with  the  confes¬ 
sion  that  he  had  no  political  claim,  and  was  never  a  partisan 
of  any  party. 

M 


178  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

verance,  and  would  have  daunted,  fit  the  age  of 
sixty-seven,  a  spirit  less  brave  and  patient  than 
his.  He  retained  it  for  six  years,  and  thorough¬ 
ly  performed  its  duties.  He  might  be  seen,  at 
given  hours  of  every  day,  invested  in  his  In¬ 
dia-rubber  dress,  equipped  for  the  work,  enter¬ 
ing  the  interior  of  boilers.  But  this  was  not  the 
hardest  part  of  his  work.  In  the  beginning  he 
had  to  contend  with  the  jealousies  and  mean 
cavils  of  steam-boat  proprietors  and  command¬ 
ers.  They  had  been  too  long  accustomed  to 
using  steam  without  a  scrupulous  regard  to  the 
capacity  of  their  vessels  to  brook  interference 
and  control,  even  though  authorized  by  legis¬ 
lative  enactment;  and  at  first,  insults  and  in¬ 
juries  were  heaped  upon  our  patient  friend, 
but  his  inflexible  justice,  his  firmness  and  gen¬ 
tleness,  obtained  for  him  the  complete  mastery. 
His  good  overcame  their  evil;  and  we  have 
heard  him  say,  “They  are  all  friendly  to  me 
now  that  they  know  I  mean  only  to  do  my 
duty,  and  that  I  will  do  that .” 

Though  he  never  complained  of  this  disa- 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


179 


\ 


greeable  labor,  and,  so  far  from  shrinking  from 
it,  performed  it  with  alacrity,  always  doing 
more  than  was  required  of  him,  yet,  when  he 
was  released  from  it  in  1853,  he  enjoyed  his 
emancipation.  The  last  three  years  of  his  life 
were  a  holiday,  filled  with  occupation  for  his 
darling  object,  the  schools.  But  this  occupa¬ 
tion,  though  we  believe  it  laid  up  much  treas-v 
ure  for  him  in  Heaven,  gave  no  money  return. 

Mr.  Curtis’s  only  son  had  just  returned  from 
California  with  a  large  fortune,  acquired  by  his 
intelligent  industry  in  the  important  business 
of  assaying.  His  well-known  liberality  in  all 
the  relations  of  life  was,  toward  his  father,  stim¬ 
ulated  by  filial  fidelity,  love,  and  reverence, 
and  he  wished  at  once  to  make  pecuniary  ar¬ 
rangements  that  would  place  him  beyond  the 
casualties  of  life;  but  the  old  man  was  a 
Spartan  in  his  simplicity  and  in  his  love  of  in¬ 
dependence,  and  he  insisted  upon  such  an  ar¬ 
rangement  of  his  small  means  as  to  ultimately 
secure  to  his  son  a  complete  indemnification 
for  all  the  advances  made  for  him ;  and  we 


180  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

know  that  it  was  a  pleasant  thought  to  him  on 
his  death-bed  that  he  owed  no  man,  not  even 
the  dear  son  who  would  have  delighted  to 
share  his  prosperity  with  him. 

The  succeeding  years  were  a  beautiful  twi¬ 
light  to  his  long  serene  day ;  and  as  in  the  nat¬ 
ural  twilight  the  flowers  exhale  delicious  odors, 
so  was  his  passing  day  made  sweet  by  the  fruits 
of  his  life;  and  as  for  the  future,  his  hopes 
were  anchored  on  the  sure  promises  of  God. 

He  was  quite  free  from  the  repinings  and 
petulance  of  old  age:  they  arise  partly  from 
the  uncomfortable  consciousness  of  decaying 
powers,  but  more  from  well-grounded  self-dis¬ 
satisfactions. 

Joseph  Curtis  never  boasted,  never  even  ex¬ 
pressed  self-approval,  but  he  enjoyed  the  peace 
of  the  faithful  man.  If  he  had  any  qualities 
conspicuous  above  his  other  virtues,  they  were 
his  modesty  and  humility.  They  were  the 
more  striking,  not  being,  par  excellence ,  the 
graces  of  philanthropists.  They  live  in  the 
world’s  eye,  and  are  pampered  by  its  praise, 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


181 


and  their  weakness  is  at  the  point  of  vanity 
and  vainglory.  After  a  long  and  intimate  in¬ 
tercourse  with  him,  we  can  say  that  we  never 
heard  him  boast  of  any  thing  he  had  done,  or 
even  advert  to  his  sacrifices  for  the  Manumis¬ 
sion  Society,  to  his  great  work  at  the  House 
of  Refuge,  to  his  care  of  his  apprentices,  to  his 
devotion  to  the  schools,  or  to  any  one  or  all 
of  his  good  deeds  as  reflecting  any  merit  on 
himself,  and  no  man  recognized  with  a  more 
generous  appreciation  the  well-doing  of  oth¬ 
ers.  He  not  only  did  not  seek  renown,  but 
he  avoided  notoriety.  He  was  quiet  in  all  his 
ways.  His  good  works  were  as  silently  per¬ 
formed  as  the  underground  processes  of  Na¬ 
ture,  and  as  beneficent  as  the  dews  of  heaven. 
We  believe  there  are  few  of  his  fellow-citi¬ 
zens  that  are  aware  how  much  they  owe  to 
him  of  the  improvements  in  their  sewerage, 
their  fire  department,*  and  the  ventilation  of 

*  “He  invented  the  trap  that  is  the  plumbers’  great 
agent  in  keeping  nauseous  fumes  from  our  domestic  waste- 
pipes  and  public  sewers.  He  invented  and  carried  the  first 


182  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

their  public  buildings.  And  who  shall  reckon 
the  value  of  his  services  for  the  young?  and 
where  is  its  limit? 

Among  his  most  intimate  and  dearest  friends, 
the  friend  of  many  years,  was  the  benefactor  of 
our  city,  Peter  Cooper.  In  a  letter  in  relation 
to  Joseph  Curtis  he  says,  u  I  wish  it  was  in  my 
power  to  give  you  a  description  of  his  untiring 
devotion  to  all  the  great  interests  of  humanity. 
To  do  this,  it  would  be  necessary  to  follow  him 
through  a  life  of  efforts  to  aid  almost  every  be¬ 
nevolent  enterprise  calculated  to  elevate  and 
better  the  condition  of  the  present,  but  more 
particularly  the  rising  generation.  I  regard 
him  as  the  best  and  truest  pattern  of  a  perfect 
man  that  it  has  ever  fallen  to  my  lot  to  know.” 
This  is  a  fit  concurrent  testimony  to  the  brief 
history  of  his  life. 

torch  that  lighted  firemen  on  their  perilous  way  to  the  suc¬ 
cor  of  burning  homes.  He  was  engaged  almost  to  the  last 
hour  of  his  life  in  devising  a  method,  which  bids  fair  to  be 
successful,  for  curing  the  inhuman  slipperiness  of  our  Russ 
pavement,  whose  cruelty  to  beasts  had  moved  his  tender 
heart.” — Dr.  Bellows’s  Sermon. 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


183 


Soon  after  his  release  from  business,  Mr.  Cur¬ 
tis  celebrated  his  “golden  wedding,”  the  fifti¬ 
eth  anniversary  of  his  marriage.  This  ob¬ 
servance,  which  has  now  become  common 
among  us,  was  first  introduced  by  a  passage  in 
one  of  Miss  Bremer’s  popular  novels  describing 
this  celebration,  which  is  a  sort  of  institution  in 
Germany.  Never  was  it  observed  under  more 
fitting  auspices  than  in  Mr.  Curtis’s  house. 
Both  he  and  his  bride  of  fifty  years  were  in  the 
very  excellence  and  beauty  of  old  age.  The 
unstinted  vows  of  their  bridal-day  had  been 
faithfully  kept.  Their  children  and  grand¬ 
children  “arose  up  and  called  them  blessed;” 
brothers  and  sisters  were  still  alive  to  greet 
them;  grateful  nephews  and  nieces,  to  the 
number  of  forty,  and  unnumbered  friends, 
were  gathered  around  them,  with  wreaths  and 
bouquets  of  white,  spotless  flowers,  the  fitting 
emblems  of  their  lives ;  and  their  beloved  pas¬ 
tor  was  with  them  to  offer  his  prayers  and 
thanksgiving.  The  rays  of  Divine  acceptance 
seemed  falling  on*  human  lives. 


184  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 


The  following  lines  were  found  with  Mr. 
Curtis’s  will.  Miss  Curtis  says  her  father  had 
no  habit  of  versification,  and  probably  adopted 
them  from  their  consonance  to  his  state  of 
mind.  They  are  artless  lines,  and,  we  are  in¬ 
clined  to  believe,  were  composed  by  himself. 

i 

They  not  only  express  his  views  of  life’s  work, 
but  all  who  have  read  our  memoir  will  see 
that  his  life  was  a  verification  of  their  prayer. 

“Let  me  not  die  before  I’ve  done  for  Thee 

My  earthly  work,  whatever  it  may  be  ; 

Call  me  not  hence  with  mission  unfulfilled ; 

Let  me  not  leave  my  space  of  ground  untilled. 

Impress  this  truth  upon  me,  that  not  one 

Can  do  my  portion  that  I  leave  undone ; 

For  each  one  in  Thy  vineyards  hath  a  spot 

To  labor  in  for  life,  and  weary  not. 

Then  give  me  strength  all  faithfully  to  toil, 

Converting  barren  earth  to  fruitful  soil. 

Yet  most  I  want  a  spirit  of  content , 

To  work  where’er  thou’lt  wish  my  labor  spent. 

I  want  a  spirit  passive,  to  be  still, 

And  by  Thy  power  to  do  Thy  holy  will. 

Oh,  make  me  useful  in  this  world  of  thine, 

_  • 

In  ways  according  to  Thy  will,  not  mine.” 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


185 


The  prayer  granted  and  the  work  done,  it 
was  time  for  the  faithful  servant  to  pass  on  to 
a  higher  service. 

On  Monday  morning,  April  6th,  1856,  the 
last  time  Mr.  Curtis  left  his  house,  he  went  to 
see  the  launch  of  the  Adriatic.  It  is  pleasant 
to  remember,  as  a  proof  of  the  continued  en¬ 
joyment  of  his  life  to  its  latest  period,  how 
cheerfully  and  gratefully  he  spoke  to  the  writer 
of  this  memoir  (whom  he  visited  on  his  way  to 
the  launch)  of  his  perfect  health.  I  may  be 
permitted,  also,  without  wounding  the  modesty 
of  the  living,  to  record  here  the  last  expression 
I  heard  from  him.  It  is  the  due  of  filial  piety. 
He  turned  after  he  got  to  the  door,  and  said, 

“  I  want  to  tell  you  what  a  blessing - (his 

single  daughter)  is  to  me;”  his  face  was  all 
aglow.  “She  is  every  thing  I  could  ask — 
more,  every  thing  I  could  desire.”  No  daugh¬ 
ter  can  be  much  pitied  for  what  she  misses 
who  thus  remains  “the  angel  of  her  father’s 
house.”* 

*  Let  no  one  imagine  that  if  this  daughter  was  “loved 


186  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS, 

Mr.  Curtis  had  an  enjoyment  in  the  success 
of  steam  navigation  akin  to  personal  gratifica¬ 
tion.  He  was  an  early  friend  of  Robert  Ful¬ 
ton,  and  had  adhered  to  him,  and  steadily  be¬ 
lieved  in  his  success,  when  his  projects  were 
derided  as  schemes  by  those  who  believe  only 
in  what  has  been — the  loyal  adherents  to  the 
past.  The  launch  of  a  fine  steamer  was  a  ju¬ 
bilee  to  him — like  going  to  the  wedding  of  a 
friend.  The  launch  of  the  Adriatic  was  his 
last  jubilee  in  this  world. 

He  returned  from  it  severely  ill  with  what 
seemed  an  acute  disease,  from  which  he  might 
be  soon  relieved  by  medical  skill.  On  Tues¬ 
day  he  was  partially  relieved,  and  on  Wednes¬ 
day  he  alone  of  all  his  family  knew  the  disease 
was  not  removed.  That  night  he  talked  inces¬ 
santly  in  his  dreams.  His  imaginings  were 
characteristic.  He  was  in  the  schools  address¬ 
ing  the  teachers  and  talking  to  the  children. 
Occasionally  awaking,  and  looking  up  benignly 

more,”  the  others  were  “loved  less.”  Hers  was  an  undi¬ 
vided  duty. 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


187 


to  the  faithful  child  who  was  watching  every 
breath  he  drew,  he  would  say,  “Well,  I  have 
been  dreaming  very  pleasantly.  Do  go  to  bed, 
my  daughter.”  On  Thursday,  though  he  seem¬ 
ed  better,  he  detected  on  the  faces  of  his  friends 
their  continued  anxiety.  “Daughter,”  he  said 
to  Miss  Curtis,  “you  are  anxious.”  She  tried 
to  evade  the  truth.  “  I  know  you  are,”  he  per¬ 
sisted;  “now,  my  child,  be  quiet.  If  God  calls 
me,  I  am  ready.  You  will  take  care  of  moth¬ 
er  ;  we  shall  all  soon  meet  again.” 

After  this  he  was  delirious  at  intervals,  but 
even  in  his  delirium  he  was  himself — reasona¬ 
ble,  dignified,  and  gentle.  .  Once  his  daughter 
found  it  necessary  to  restrain  him.  “You 
must  not ,  father,”  she  said.  He  fixed  his  eye 
on  her  with  an  expression  of  calm  rebuke,  and 
said,  “Do  you  know  to  whom  you  are  speak¬ 
ing?  Are  you  not  ashamed,  my  daughter?” 
Miss  Curtis,  in  relating  this,  said,  “  I  was 
ashamed;”  so  stringent  was  the  love  by  which 
he  governed,  so  spontaneous  her  submission  to 
his  authority,  so  instinctive  her  reverence  for 


188  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

him.  Even  in  his  wanderings,  during  the  two 
last  days  of  his  illness,  he  manifested  his  char¬ 
acteristic  candor  and  self-control.  The  fixtures 
in  his  room  appeared  to  him  disturbed  and  in 
violent  motion;  and  when  told  they  did  not 
move,  he  said,  u  Put  a  pin  below  that  picture, 
and  see  if  it  does  not  push  it  down.”  The  pin 
was  placed.  He  watched  it,  saw  it  did  not 
move,  and  said  at  once,  “  I  give  it  up ;  I  see 
something  is  wrong  here,”  putting  his  hand  to 
his  head.  A  powerful  narcotic,  on  Thursday 
night,  procured  for  him  a  long  sleep,  and  he 
awoke  on  Friday  morning  with  his  head  clear 
and  his  spirit  calm.  He  looked  around  him 

» 

with  a  smile.  A  faithful  servant  could  not 
ask  for  other  or  happier  circumstances  in  which 
to  close  the  day  of  his  earthly  labor,  and  pass 
the  threshold  into  his  Father’s  house.  He  was 
in  his  own  home,  a  home  sanctified  by  domes¬ 
tic  love  and  peace,  and  the  heart’s  daily  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  true  God.  The  wife  of  his  youth, 
the  loved  and  honored  companion  of  his  life¬ 
time,  was  beside  him.  nis  only  son,  his  son’s 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


189 


wife,  all  his  daughters,  were  gathered  about 
him,  banded  together  bj  filial  and  mutual  love. 
He  looked  around  with  a  radiant  smile.  “  Dear 
mother,  you  here?”  he  said;  “and  you?  and 
you?”  he  continued,  tenderly  pronouncing  the 
name  of  each.  “  This  is  a  blessing ;  and  in  my 
own  room,  too.  God  is  good.  Why,  my  be¬ 
loved,  are  you  weeping?”  They  replied  by 
expressing  their  joy  that  he  was  better.  “Yes, 
children,  I  feel  well,”  he  said;  “but  what  mat¬ 
ters  it  if  I  go  home  soon,  surrounded  by  so 
many  dear  ones?”  They  were  alarmed  by  his 
weakness,  and  begged  him  to  be  quiet.  He 
knew  that  his  time  was  nearly  out,  and  replied, 
“  Let  me  talk,  and  tell  you  Heaven  is  love ;  and 
here  is  love ;  if  I  go,  will  you  not  love  one 
another?” 

“Yes,  dear  father,”  was  the  reply ;  “  but  will 
you  not  stay  with  us?” 

“Perhaps  so,  children;  but  I  am  ready,  if 
God  wills.”. 

One  of  his  dear  friends,  a  child  of  his  heart’s 

•  • 

adoption,  watched  with  him  the  following  night 


190  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

— the  last  night.  Mr.  Curtis  said  to  him,  “If 
I  should  never  rise  from  this  bed,  remember 
that  I  loved  you.  I  know  you  will  have  a 
care  for  those  I  leave.  I  feel  no  sorrow  in 
dying  but  the  grief  it  will  give  my  children. 
I  believe  in  Grod ;  His  promise  is  sure.” 

After  this  his  mind  occasionally  wandered, 
but  his  mental  eye  was  fixed  on  the  light  that 
beamed  from  his  Father’s  house.  He  repeated 
texts  fraught  with  promise  and  love,  such  as, 
“In  my  Father’s  house  are  many  mansions,” 
etc. ;  “  Feed  my  sheep “  Little  children,  love 
one  another.” 

On  Saturday  he  recognized  each  member  of 
his  family.  To  his  physician  he  said,  “You 
have  done  all  you  can ;  I  am  satisfied and  to 
his  children  he  reiterated  the  simple  declara¬ 
tions  of  his  love,  and  his  last  tender  care  for 
them.  “  My  children,  will  you  love  one  anoth¬ 
er  ?  I  leave  you  only  love. 

“You  may  be  asked,  my  children,”  he  said, 
“  what  sect  your  father  was  of.  Tell  them  I 
was  of  no  sect,  and  that  my  religion  may  be 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


191 


found  in  the  eighth  verse  of  the  sixth  chapter 
of  Micah.”  He  then  repeated  the  words  in  a 
low  but  unfaltering  tone :  “  ‘  He  hath-  shown 
thee,  0  man,  what  is  good ;  and  what  doth  the 
Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?’  I  have  fallen  short,”  he  added,  “but 
I  have  faith  to  hope  all  will  be  forgiven.”  At 
nine  o’clock  on  the  evening  of  that  Saturday 
his  spirit  passed  on. 

“I  heard  a  voice  saying,  ‘Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of 
thy  Lord.’  ” 


As  this  memoir  of  Joseph  Curtis  has  been 
written  mainly  to  preserve  him  in  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  children  he  loved  and 
taught,  and  to  impress  his  example  upon  them, 
we  wish  specially  to  call  their  attention  to  those 
qualities  that  formed  the  broad  foundation  of 
his  useful  life.  They  are  attainable  by  all. 

He  was  docile,  obedient,  and  reverent  in  his 


192  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

childhood ;  modest  and  diligent  in  his  youth; 
self-denying;  always  frugal  in  his  expenses; 
at  every  period  of  his  worldly  prosperity  living 
in  a  simply -furnished  house,  and  dressing  with 
strict  economy ;  both  house  and  person  adorned, 
and  adorned  only  with  neatness.  His  habits 
were  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking,  strictly 
adjusted  to  the  laws  of  health. 

Strict  truth  requires  that  we  make  one  ex¬ 
ception  to  this  statement.  In  Mr.  Curtis’s  youth 
chewing  tobacco  was  almost  without  exception 
the  habit  of  his  cotemporaries,  and  he  acquired 
it ;  and,  though  he  used  it  with  extreme  mod¬ 
eration,  he  all  his  life  bitterly  lamented  its  mas¬ 
tery  over  him.  His  own  experience  made  him 
more  earnestly  protest  against  it.  He  never 
justified,  or  in  any  way  excused  it.  He  look¬ 
ed  upon  tobacco  in  all  its  shapes  as  an  expen¬ 
sive  superfluity,  and  as  an  “unclean  thing.” 
He  warned  the  schoolboys  against  it  as  stimu¬ 
lating  the  appetite  for  strong  drink,  and  he  la¬ 
mented,  as  a  misfortune,  the  countenance  given 
to  it  by  the  example  of  some  of  the  teachers. 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


193 


All  characters  have  some  peculiarities.  Mr. 
Curtis’s  young  friends  may  ask,  “What  were 
his?”  “His  most  striking  peculiarity,”  his 
pastor  well  said,  “  was,  that  his  religious  charac¬ 
ter  was  his  whole  character.  He  had  no  views 
which  he  called  religious  views,  no  duties  he 
called  his  religious  duties,  no  opinions  he  call¬ 
ed  his  religious  opinions.  All  his  views,  du¬ 
ties,  and  opinions  were  religious.  His  whole 
character  was  devout  —  God-fearing,  God-lov- 
mg. 

Joseph  Curtis  never,  in  the  technical  sense, 
“  belonged  to  a  church.”  It  is  probable,  from 
his  long  attendance  with  his  wife  upon  the 
worship  of  the  Friends,  and  his  attachment  to 
Elias  Hicks,  that  he  imbibed  their  belief  in  re¬ 
gard  to  the  sacraments.  We  can  not  other¬ 
wise  account  for  his  non-observance  of  the  last 
request  of  the  Master,  an  omission  exceptional 
to  his  whole  character.  On  the  last  Sunday 
of  his  life  he  attended  church,  as  was  his  uni¬ 
form  custom.  There  was  a  communion  service, 

N 


¥ 


194  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

and  as  lie  rose  to  leave  tlie  church,  his  daugh¬ 
ter,  oppressed  with  the  unfitness  of  his  going 
away  while  she  remained  to  participate  the 
privilege,  said  imploringly,  “  Why  not  stay,  fa¬ 
ther  ?”  “  It  is  not  for  me,”  he  replied ;  “  I  do 

not  require  it.  To  my  understanding,  I  shall 
eat  with  Him  in  my  Father’s  kingdom.” 

Mr.  Curtis  worshiped  with  the  Friends  till 
he  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Dewey’s  preach¬ 
ing.  That  met  his  wants,  and  was  his  Sunday’s 
feast ;  and  from  the  first  time  he  heard  him  till 
Dr.  Dewey  left  his  pulpit  in  New  York,  we 
believe  he  never  failed  to  be  in  his  place  in  the 
church  of  his  pastor  and  friend,  for  Dr.  Dewey 
soon  became  his  friend,  and  their  friendship,  as 
all  true  friendships  do,  grew  by  what  it  fed  on 
— mutual  respect  and  affection.  In  confirma¬ 
tion  of  this,  I  am  permitted  to  quote  some  pas¬ 
sages  in  a  letter  I  received  from  my  friend  Dr. 
Dewey  after  Mr.  Curtis’s  death. 

“  Is  there  not,”  he  says,  “  something  in  a 
man’s  chosen  pursuits,  his  surroundings,  the 
beings  he  loves  and  lives  among,  that  is  reflect' 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


195 


ed  in  his  countenance?  for  it  seems  as  if  the 
very  guilelessness,  innocence,  and  modesty  of 
childhood  were  reflected  in  the  face  of  our 
friend ;  and  it  seems,  too,  as  if  his  unobtrusive¬ 
ness  naturally  sought  that  sphere.  Down 
among  the  schools,  among  the  children,  he 
could  work,  and  the  public  need  not  know  or 
praise  it.  ‘  Public !’  the  word  was  out  of  his 
vocabulary ;  and  yet,  if  it  was  down,  he  knew 
that  it  was  down  qjnong  the  foundations.  His 
penetrating,  practical  understanding  of  things 
saw  that  the  hope  of  society  lay  in  the  care 
and  training  of  its  children. 

“  There  he  took  hold.  For  many  years  he 
spent  half  of  his  time  in  unpaid  and  unofficial 
labors  among  the  common  schools.  It  was 
very  interesting  to  visit  them  in  his  company, 
not  on  ‘examination  day,’  but  any  day.  He 
was  quite  as  much  at  home  in  them  as  the 
teachers.  He  knew  every  child,  I  think,  and 
every  child  seemed  to  know  him.  If  each 
school  had  been  his  own  family,  he  could  hard¬ 
ly  have  taken  more  pride  or  pleasure  in  it. 


196  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

He  used  to  ask  me  to  go  and  see  one  of  them 
as  another  man  would  a  gallery  of  pictures. 
Well  might  he  take  pride  and  delight  in  them. 
During  those  years  the  common  schools  of 
New  York  made  unexampled  progress,  coming 
up  with,  if  not  going  beyond,  Boston  itself. 

“I  would  point  to  this  part  of  Mr.  Curtis’s 
life  because  of  its  very  unobtrusiveness.  It  is 
well  that  society  should  be  reminded  of  how 
much  is  done  for  it  that  .lies  out  of  sight. 
There  is  an  immense  deal  of  labor  to  be  done 
by  somebody,  and  that  in  more  than  one  de¬ 
partment,  as  you  are  well  aware,  of  which  the 
world  knows  little  or  nothing ;  but,  though  the 
true  philanthropist  does  not  care  to  have  his 
work  known,  yet  the  world  should  know  and 
honor  it.  Philanthropist,  I  say,  and  yet  I  hes¬ 
itate  to  apply  the  title  to  him.  Certainly  no 
man  ever  had  less  the  air  about  him  of  pro¬ 
fessional  philanthropy,  or  less  of  a  too  common 
extravagance  and  one-sidedness. 

“  I  remember  meeting  him  one  morning  in 
company,  and  of  the  party  was  a  gentleman 


197 


* 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 

professing  something  of  this  character,  perhaps, 
and  who  made  the  observation  that  the  most 
of  the  distress  of  the  poor  and  suffering  classes 
was  owing  to  the  injustice  and  neglect  of  those 
above  them.  I  said  in  reply,  ‘  Here  is  Mr.  Jo¬ 
seph  Curtis,  who  has  walked  the  streets  of 
New  York  on  errands — well,  he  will  not  let 
me  say  on  good  errands — for  twenty  years  be¬ 
fore  ever  you  or  I  stepped  upon  them :  let  us 
hear  what  he  says.’  It  was  amid  considerable 
philanthropic  impatience  on  the  other  side  that 
I  contrived  by  a  series  of  questions  to  extract 
from  Mr.  Curtis  the  opinions,  successively, 

‘  That  the  distress  of  the  poor  was  not  owing 
to  the  rich — that  it  was  owing  mainly  to  them¬ 
selves  ;  that  forty-nine  fiftieths  of  all  the  poor 
distressed  families  in  the  city  might,  with  due 
exertion  and  care  on  the  part  of  all  their  mem¬ 
bers,  have  been  free  from  debt  and  want,  and 
might  always  be  so.’ 

“What  these  annual  rushes  of  charity  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor  are  doing  to  wear  away  the 
very  foundations  of  character  in  the  lower 


198  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

strata  of  society  deserves  to  be  more  carefully 
considered  than  it  bas  been. 

u  ‘How  do  you  get  along?7  said  a  kind  man  . 
to  an  idle  banger-on  upon  tbe  care  of  others. 

“  ‘  Why,  we  finds  it  pretty  bard  now,  when 
winter  is  just  beginning;  but  pretty  soon,  when 
it  gets  colder,  bless  you!  tbe  trotters  comes 
along,  and  then  we  contrives  to  do  very  well.7 
I  suppose  tbe  £  trotters1  must  come  along  till 
society  learns  to  walk  in  ways  more  conse¬ 
crated  to  tbe  welfare  of  all.  But  their  well- 
meant  and  perhaps  necessary,  but  sadly  imper¬ 
fect  mission,  would  be  ended  if  all  men  of  tbe 
higher  classes  were  like  Joseph  Curtis.77 

This  suggestion  of  Dr.  Dewey  might  be  fol¬ 
lowed  out  and  supported  if  it  were  possible  to 
ascertain  how  many  human  beings  have  been 
saved  from  destructive  habits  and  final  pover¬ 
ty,  and  made  self-depending  and  independent 
men  by  the  patient  inculcations  of  Joseph  Cur¬ 
tis — “rule  upon  rule,  and  precept  upon  pre¬ 
cept.77 

After  Dr.  Dewey’s  removal,  Mr.  Curtis  be¬ 
came  a  member  of  Dr.  Bellows’s  congregation, 


CLOSE  OF  LIFE. 


199 


and  how  lie  esteemed  him  his  eloquent  sermon 
has  told. 

Though  thus  worshiping  with  Unitarians, 
proud  as  we  might  be  to  claim  him,  our  pride 
would  be  our  shame  after  his  own  profession 
of  faith.  In  the  words  of  Micah,  “What  doth 
the  Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God.”  This  was  the  text  to  this  great  and 
good  man’s  whole  life,  and  one  might  as  well 
expect  the  sunshine  and  rain  of  the  universal 
providence  to  fall  on  one  little  garden-spot  as 
to  pen  in  the  fold  of  any  particular  sect  this 
disciple  of  Christ,  whom  all  sects  must  write 
Christian. 

We  fitly  close  our  memoir  with  the  closing- 
passage  of  Dr.  Bellows’s  sermon,  to  which  an¬ 
swered  the  moistened  eyes  of  an  immense  con¬ 
gregation,  gathered  to  offer  their  tribute,  not  to 
a  political  leader,  not  to  a  statesman,  not  to  a 
man  of  literary  renown,  but  to  “  one  who  loved 
his  fellow-men,”  and  showed  his  love  by  his 
works. 

“  Ah  !  beloved  and  revered  friend,”  said  Dr. 


200  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  CURTIS. 

Bellows,  bending  from  bis  desk  oyer  the  coffin 
tbat  contained  the  remains  of  tbat  friend, 
“what  have  we  to  do  but  lay  tby  sacred  dust 
to  rest?  No  more  can  we  welcome  tbee  to 
these  seats  of  worship.  Tby  benignant  face 
can  no  more  turn  its  sympathetic  eyes  up  to 
this  altar.  Tby  white  locks  wave  no  longer 
about  tby  bent  shoulders.  Tby  pleasant  voice 
is  bushed ;  tby  friendly  band  is  cold ;  but  tby 
heart  beats  still  in  the  better  world.  Thou  art 
joined  to  tby  Master,  to  the  early  companions 
of  tby  usefulness,  to  the  children  thou  bast  led 
in  the  way  of  duty  and  truth,  and  who  in  thou¬ 
sands  have  gone  before  tbee  to  welcome  tbee 
to  tby  reward.  Farewell !  These  lips  have 
committed  no  purer  soul  than  thine  to  the 
grave;  and' 'told  the  story  of  no  life  more 
worthy  the  imitation  and  respect  of  men,  or 
whose  acceptance  in  Heaven  is  more  fully  se¬ 
cured  by  Him  who  ‘went  about  doing  good,’ 
and  who  said,  *  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart, 
for  they  shall  see  God.’  ” 


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Price  of  the  set  complete,  including  case . $5  00 

Price  of  the  volumes  separately .  50 


Young  Christian  Series. 

Complete  in  Four  12mo  volumes,  richly  illustrated  with  engravings, 
and  beautifully  bound. 

1.  The  Young  Christian.  3.  The  AY  ay  to  do  Good. 

2.  The  Corner  ^tone.  4.  Hoaryiiead  &  M‘Donner. 

It  is  superfluous  to  speak  of  the  rare  merits  of  Mr.  Abbott’s  writings 
on  the  subject  of  practical  religion.  Their  extensive  circulation,  not 
only  in  our  own  country,  but  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  France, 
Germany,  Holland,  India,  and  at  various  missionary  stations  through¬ 
out  the  globe,  evinces  the  excellence  of  their  plan,  and  the  felicity 
with  which  it  has  been  executed.  In  unfolding  the  different  topics 
which  he  takes  in  hand,  Mr.  Abbott  reasons  clearly,  concisely,  and  to 
the  point ;  but  the  severity  of  the  argument  is  always  relieved  by  a  sin¬ 
gular  variety  and  beauty  of  illustration.  It  is  this  admirable  combin¬ 
ation  of  discussion  with  incident  that  invests  his  writings  with  an  al¬ 
most  equal  charm  for  readers  of  every  diversity  of  age  and  culture. 


Price  of  the  set  complete,  bound  in  Muslin . $4  00 

Price  of  the  set  complete,  bound  in  Half  Calf . 7  40 

Each  volume  separately.  Muslin . 1  00 

Each  volume  separately,  Half  Calf  .  .  ." . 1  86 


ABBOTT’S  JUVENILE  SERIES. 


Illustrated  Histories. 

By  Jacob  and  John  S.  C.  Abbott. 

A  series  of  volumes  containing  full  accounts  of  the  lives,  character? 
and  exploits  of  the  most  distinguished  Sovereigns,  Potentates,  and 
Eulers  that  have  been  renowned  among  mankind  in  the  various  ages 
of  the  world.  The  volumes  are  beautifully  printed  and  richly  illus¬ 
trated,  with  illuminated  title-pages  and  numerous  maps  and  engrav¬ 
ings. 

The  following  volumes  are  now  ready : 


English  Series. 

Alfred  the  Great,  Queen  Elizabeth, 

William  the  Conqueror,  Charles  the  First, 

Eiohard  the  First,  Charles  the  Seoond. 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 


/ 

Ancient  Series. 


Cyrus  the  Great, 
Darius  the  Great, 
Xerxes, 

Alexander  the  Great, 
Romulus, 


Hannibal, 
Pyrrhus, 
Julius  Caesar, 
Cleopatra, 
Nero. 


General  Series. 


Hernando  Cortez, 
Christopher  Columbus, 
Maria  Antoinette, 


Madame  Poland, 
Henry  the  Fourth, 
King  Philip. 


Price  per  volume . $  60 

Price  of  the  set  (23  volumes)  in  case . .  .  13  80 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

Franklin  Square,  N.  "ST. 


Harper  &  Brothers  will  send  either  of  the  above  Works  by 
Mail,  postage  paid  (for  any  distance  in  the  United  States  under  3000 
miles),  on  receipt  of  the  Money. 


ijarpcr’s  Kau  Catalogue. 


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Publications  is  now  ready  for  distribution,  and  may  be  obtained 
gratuitously  on  application  to  the  Publishers  personally,  or  by  letter 
enclosing  six  cents  in  postage  stamps. 

The  attention  of  gentlemen,  in  town  or  country,  designing  to  form 
Libraries  or  enrich  their  literary  collections,  is  respectfully  invited  to 
this  Catalogue,  which  will  be  found  to  comprise  a  large  proportion  of 
the  standard  and  most  esteemed  works  in  English  Literature — com¬ 
prehending  more  than  two  thousand  volumes — which  are  of¬ 
fered  in  most  instances  at  less  than  one  half  the  cost  of  similar  pro¬ 
ductions  in  England 

To  Librarians  and  others  connected  with  Colleges,  Schools,  etc 
who  may  not  have  access  to  a  reliable  guide  in  forming  the  true  esti¬ 
mate  of  literary  productions,  it  is  believed  the  present  Catalogue  will 
prove  especially  valuable  as  a  manual  of  reference. 

To  prevent  disappointment,  it  is  suggested  that,  whenever  books 
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Franklin  Square ,  New  York. 


GAYLORD 


DATE  DUE 


PRINTED  IN  U  S  A 


HV28 

.C87S4 


Sedgwick,  G.  M. 


Boston  College  Library 

Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.  02167 

Books  may  be  kept  for  two  weeks  unless  a 
shorter  period  is  specified. 


